Yui's Heart
by omegafire17
Summary: It was not time well-spent, confined to merely watching the players by Cardinal - but when two players begin to show emotions she's been longing to see, what will be her reaction?
1. Emotions

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_Cardinal System_

Terror. Despair. Rage. Insanity.

That was the overwhelming feelings from the 6,258 players who still remained in Sword Art Online - and she was unable to help them. Cardinal would not allow her to go out and appear to the players, or appeal to them from here, where she had spent the last two years observing from. It wouldn't let her do her job as counselor, and it wouldn't permit to do anything other than monitor the game. She could hear every word that they said on the shifting screens, saw every action that they took, and felt and every blow that struck their bodies as if it'd been her own...

And she, Yui-MHCP001, could do nothing but watch.

She felt the errors in her system, but could not affect them - she wondered if she'd succumb to them first, or to the players' overwhelming emotions.

Just across from her, a screen shifted again, which she didn't notice at all... not until the words started getting through to her.

_"Very suspicious."_

She slowly looked up, her processes a little slow, or maybe just unsure - she didn't quite recognize that tone. The boy with the black hair merely kept his silence, as if the answer was awkward or painful, while the girl with the long strawberry-blonde hair slowly 'hmm'ed over this. Still she wondered faintly; what was that tone she was using?

_"Oh never mind; it's rude to ask people to justify their skills."_

She breathed out.

Was... that... cheerful... she just heard?

Meanwhile, the black-haired boy just looked relieved that she'd suddenly dropped the subject, then she accessed her menu, saying something about having lunch-

_"R-Really!? Did- did you make it yourself!?"_

She further breathed out, even as the two continued to eagerly (and for the girl, a little pleased/embarrassingly) discuss the subject of eating in this virtual world.

Who were they? Why had the despair of this game not gotten to them?

Just then the scene shifted; other players entered through a gate, sorta wearily and one complaining that the 'grinding' was 'killing' him, while the boy and girl instinctively stood up. However, their guard soon relaxed, and she didn't see any sort of violent reaction forthcoming.

_"Hey, Kirito!"_ the one who'd complained earlier looking straight at the black-haired boy, and sounding as if they hadn't seen each other for a while.

She made a sound. Kirito?

Within seconds, she accessed it: Kirito; Level 95; HP 18275; Main Equipment; Elucidator and Dark Repulsor, Blackwyrm Coat; Skill Slots a fraction under 80% filled overall; and Sword Skills-

She didn't pay attention to that last part, already knowing by heart what they all were - instead, she was far more entranced by what was happening on this screen.

The conversation continued, the two of them appearing to 'joke' before 'Klein' noticed the girl, then questioned what Kirito was doing, as he was a solo player... until he apparently noticed the fact that she was a girl, then he stopped completely. Kirito didn't notice, introducing them to each other - she took special note of Asuna and her stats - before he noticed Klein still hadn't moved, and wondered if he was lagging.

She quickly checked all relevant monitoring systems; there was no lag on Klein's end, or the system's end.

Then Klein snapped to attention, seeming to shake and sounding differently than he had before... something about introducing himself? Then to her shock, Kirito interrupted it with a punch to the groin area, to the similar shock of Asuna and Klein himself, not to mention his guild members. But she was confused; there hadn't been any anger, just annoyance. What was going on?

She was further confused when the guild members, instead of getting mad that he'd hit their leader, suddenly starting gushing over how she was 'the real Asuna'. Asuna herself was flustered and unsure about the attention, even as Kirito struggled to keep them back, joking that they were okay but he didn't know about Klein - right until Klein stepped on his foot.

She felt the slight pain, but there was no anger there either, in Klein or Kirito.

_"What the hell?"_

_"That's payback, you weasel."_

_"Come on, Klein-"_

_"What are you doing with a girl-?"_

_"Stop it-!"_

_"Come on, spill-!"_

Asuna let out a heavy stream of giggling.

She gasped, stunned as heard the pleasant string of sounds.

Laughter? Enjoyment? Happiness?

After all this time, people could be happy in this game!?

She reached out, touching the screen, wishing she could reach out and touch them - her programming wished it so badly, so that she could learn from them!

Then the screen switched out on her.

"Uh! No don't!" she cried out desperately, but it was too late. Weakly, hoping she could see them again, she kept special notice of all her screens now, even more than she had before.

And she waited...

/

She didn't have to wait very long.

Soon a different screen showed them again, and she held her hands in front of her, hoping to see more of their happiness - but that disappeared as soon as she saw them rapidly approaching the open door of the 74th Boss Floor. And she could hear screaming from inside...

She made a weak sound; please, let no one die in there! Please!

As soon as she thought it, her internal player counter changed; 6,258 - 6,256.

She was already wanting to cry, or imitate the human version; and it only got worse as she saw one guy land right in front of Kirito+Asuna+Klein. She saw his health dropping like a rock, with only enough time to say one thing before he burst into light.

6,256 - 6,255.

"No, stop it!" she cried out, at the exact same time Asuna started breathing _'No...'_, "Don't hurt them!"

The Gleam Eyes hovered over a poor soldier, raising it's massive sword, as was it's programming - with a roar, it went in for the kill, causing the soldier to cry out...

_"GrrrrAaaaa!"_

She gasped; Asuna just rushed straight at Gleam Eyes, fiercely determined to protect the soldiers! In the space it took to move his sword an inch, she had already crossed twenty feet and was rapidly gaining!

_"Asuna!"_

_"...Oh, what the hell!"_

Asuna leapt straight up, then peppered Gleam Eye's back with multiple rapier stabs - this caused the massive sword to miss the soldier by inches, and turned Gleam Eye's attention onto her! It then used the momentum from it's previous attack to swing the sword around; Asuna managed to turn the impact into a spin, but it left her wide open for the counterattack, and she was punched far away. Health: 18,107 - 15,884

Then Gleam Eyes moved in to get her too- but Kirito rushed in, sliding his Elucidator up and forcing the sword to land an inch from her!

"Please don't die" she begged of them. "I couldn't handle it if you did..."

Still, she was grateful to Klein and his guild for getting the other soldiers out; now they were safe, as Bosses couldn't leave their lairs.

Then Kirito and Gleam Eyes turned on each other, sword vs. sword, and each landed a hit on each other... but the damage on the Boss had a lower percent than Kirito's! Then he was forced into blocking a direct strike, and keeping it at bay second after second-

Health: 17,627 - 16,341 - 14,985, and it just kept getting lower...

"Get out of there!" she cried out, unknowingly saying it in unison with Asuna.

Fortunately, he managed to get out from under it, and dodged the next attack... then after a few furious seconds of deciding what he should do, he barely managed to withheld another strike from Gleam Eyes. Least that one was glancing, and thus did very little damage.

_"Hey Klein! Asuna! Listen; I need ten seconds! Keep him off me!"_ he yelled, jumping back from another attack.

_"Yeah, you got it!"_ Klein responded, rushing forward with Asuna as he quickly worked his menu... Klein charged the Boss head-on, yelling and blocking the first strike, but the second side one managed enough force to unwillingly throw him away (but he wasn't out). Asuna dodged a direct strike-

_"Okay! I'm ready!"_

-and forced Gleam Eye's guard open, even as she trembled with anticipation.

_"Switch out!"_

Kirito rushed forward, taking Asuna's place at the front of the battle, pushing aside the massive sword with his own Elucidator - a bright glow formed just over his back, into that of Dark Repulsor, which he quickly grasped with his left hand. With a roar, he blasted Gleam Eye's head backward, his expression fierce as he wielded both blades. At first this scared her, because he looked so angry - but she did not feel anger from him; only a fierce determination to beat this thing, and even more subtly, to protect the ones he loved. She breathed out at such a thing

Kirito blocked Gleam Eye's next strike with an X-shape with little damage, then through sheer power, threw off the massive sword. _"Starburst Stream!"_ he breathed intensely to himself, eyes snapping open. He swiftly struck once, twice, four times, six, eight then ten - and they all had amped his damage output considerably!

_"What- what the hell kinda skill is that?"_

She heard him, but she worried about Kirito; his Sword Skill was depleting Gleam Eye's health, but by definition, the Sword Skill locked him from doing any other action from what was available in the skill! He couldn't block the sudden swipe across his chest (Health: 09,987 - 07,886), but it only seemed to make him more determined, charging forward and blasting Gleam Eyes in the same area.

Gleam Eyes growled, truly getting annoyed now, and moved in again.

Kirito grunted as he was struck again, but moved his blades just in time with the motion to block Gleam Eye's sword, even as he gripped them in reverse-

The Boss staggered from the force of Kirito's blows, the boy roaring fiercely as he continued his onslaught with several more blows - but it left him open to an angry Gleam Eyes, who punched him directly in the face! Health: 05,856 - 03,932 ("Oh no!")

This only increased Kirito's intensity, and she trembled as the two forces battled against each other - Kirito scored at least eight hits in only a few seconds, but Gleam Eyes still scored two more on him! Health: 03,932 - 02,824 - 01,701

At that exact moment, Gleam Eyes grabbed Kirito's Elucidator in mid-strike...

"Ah!"

The scene moved in slow-motion: Kirito had that scary look of the possessed, a determined fury that meant he would win at any cost. Asuna and Klein both reacted with horrified 'No!' expressions, even as Gleam Eyes growled low, it's massive blade aimed straight at him, the metal gleaming slightly. To her horror, Kirito did not back down.

With a furious intensity that she'd never heard before, Kirito screamed as he put all his power into his left arm, and the blades descended toward each other. They both struck home-

No!

She watched their health gauges intently - Gleam Eye's dropped and dropped, then- 0! With a glow, the Boss instantly dissolved into bursts of light, while Kirito remained in exactly the same position he had before. She trembled, unable to believe it as she stared at his gauge.

Health: 00015

He would stay alive!

The effort really took it out of him though; he fell unconscious, to her gasp - the last she saw was his friends rushing toward him, afraid that he was dead. Then the screen flickered away from the scene, causing her to start toward it, only to reach toward nothing. She was like that for a long time afterward... but she could not miss the something that welled up inside her.

She didn't know what it was... but she knew one thing.

She _had_ to see them again. To meet them.

/

_Floor 22_

It took her several days... or weeks... or months... she couldn't tell anymore. But she'd found a backdoor out of... out of something.

She wandered meaninglessly through the forest, trying to find...

What was she trying to find?

She didn't know - she didn't know what she wanted to find, or where she was, or even what was going on.

It just felt like... she needed...

She slowly fell backward.

...rest.

She lay there asleep, unaware that at that moment, she was feet away from the very people she had wanted to meet.

/

_"Sleep well... please hurry and wake up tomorrow..."_

It was if she'd heard it in a dream; a soft voice, trying to comfort her and wash away all her fears. And right now, she felt very warm, safe and protected - was the voice in her dream protecting her?

She struggled a bit, feeling heavy, and awake now, so she slowly opened her eyes. But she knew nothing more than what she saw, a roof... where was she?

Something stirred nearby, not touching her, but very close.

Moving her head slowly, she turned onto her side, and was surprised. Another person lay there with her, in this bed, bigger than her by the look of it - and while most of her was hidden, she clearly had long strawberry-blonde hair, a small part of which was close. Curious, she slowly reached out, hesitant... when she touched it, her hair felt so soft.

It made her smile a little.

Then the person began to stir, and she was surprised, but not alarmed. The girl slowly turned toward her by instinct, turning her head a bit, seeming to look straight at her.

Her mouth opened a little; wow, she was really pretty, and her eyes matched her hair.

"Huh; K-Kirito!" she breathed, sitting straight up and never once looking away from her. "Wake up!"

She was a little confused, but still certain she wasn't talking to her with that name.

On her left side, there came the sounds of some sort of grumbling. "Mmh, good morning - something wrong?"

"Hurry, get over here!" the bigger girl breathed quickly, still not looking away from her.

"Huh?" came his voice again, before there came the sounds of him getting up.

She slowly blinked; though this new voice was different, it sounded strong to her, and gentle as well.

The new voice belonged to a boy, who's hair was short and black, and his eyes were the same color, but he was different than the girl. When he saw her, he gasped a bit too.

"You woke up" the girl said, with a gentle voice, and she was just as gentle when she had her sit up. "Thank goodness. Do you remember what happened to you?"

Remember?

She tried to think back; did anything happen to her? But all she could remember was her waking up, in this bed- she slowly shook her head, as there was nothing.

"Okay" she breathed, a little unsure, but still unsure. "How about your name?"

"My... name..." she whispered, unsure. "My name is... I think my name is... I think... Yu-i. Yui... that's it, Yui."

The girl smiled at her softly, and her voice was just the same. "That's a cute name, nice to meet you" she said, "My name's Asuna, and this is Kirito" before gesturing at the boy, who also smiled at her.

She breathed out, unsure; she heard the names, but could not remember how to say them. "Una?" she wondered faintly. "Kito?"

The girl merely smiled more. "Try to remember" she said gently, "What were you doing in the forest, and do you know where your mom and dad are?"

Mom, dad... family.

Sad, she shook her head again. "I-I don't know" she breathed, unsure and not knowing what to do. "I- I can't remember anything."

"Oh no... mmh."

She sounded so sad...

"Well, you're awake" the boy said gently, sitting beside her, and drawing her attention. "Can I call you, Yui? (she nodded faintly) Okay, then you can call me Kirito; can you say 'Kirito'?"

She made a sound, looking at him. "Kito" she tried again.

He merely smiled again. "It's Kirito" he said softly. "Ki-ri-to."

Really wanting to say it right, she tried hard to remember, but how to say it would not stay. "Ki... to" she breathed, feeling he might be mad at her.

He wasn't, gently patting her head, to her faint surprise. "That's okay, maybe it's a little hard" he said gently, with a little something else she didn't know about. "How about you call me whatever's easier for you."

She didn't know what easier meant, but he was letting her call him what she wanted... what she wanted.

All she knew was that she trusted these two, because they were so nice, even if she didn't remember anything at all. They were like... her family... she wanted to have a family.

She slowly looked at him, nervous. "Daddy" she whispered.

"M-Me?" he asked in surprise, pointing at himself.

She slowly looked at the girl. "Auna is... Mommy" she whispered.

The bigger girl gave off a little sound, surprised, and unsure - this made her feel sad, almost wanting to cry; she didn't want to be her Mommy?

But after a moment, her face slowly softened, and she smiled. "Okay... I'm Mommy" she breathed gently. "That works."

More than anything, she felt happy. "Mommy!" she breathed brightly, before she threw herself forward, wanting nothing more than to feel her love, to feel close. "Mommy! Daddy!"

Her mommy made a soft laugh, then held her up high, but still close to her as they both giggled. "You must be hungry" she said softly. "How 'bout breakfast?"

"Okay" she said brightly, still happy, even when her mommy put her down, saying she needed to get breakfast ready. She soon found her daddy smiling at her, half-offering for a hug, which she brightened at and immediately jumped into! His sweet little chuckle was all the proof she needed that she had a family!

She had a Mommy and Daddy; that's all she ever wanted!

* * *

**At the core, it's nothing that hasn't already happened - just the viewpoint is new :P But it's hardly the only thing I'm working on lol - though the premise for the other thing may have already been touched on XD**


	2. Glitch

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_SAO, Floor 22_

Their home was really pretty, and so sweet - but right now, she was looking at her daddy as he ate something. His attention wasn't on her, but a piece of paper or something, mindlessly eating his food. She wondered if that was how she was supposed to do it as well, eating with her mouth closed, and not looking at anyone else.

But when her mommy came close, she quickly turned her head, brightening a little. "Okay, Yui" she said gently, placing a small plate with her breakfast near her. "This one's yours."

She liked that her mommy had made this for her, but still, she looked at her daddy, wondering.

Her daddy slowly became aware of her gaze, slowly looked at his own food, then gave her a little smile. "Oh, I don't know, Yui" he said gently, with something else in his voice, but it wasn't bad. "This one's super spicy."

She made a sound; spicy? But his voice said that mean she might not like it, she thought.

But she still smiled, reaching out toward him. "I want the same one that daddy has" she said brightly.

Her daddy merely smiled more. "Okay, if you think you're ready for it, I won't stop you" he said, with a tone she really liked, working to give her his food. "You only live once right?"

His words got some worry from her mommy, but she was too happy to be sharing daddy's food to notice. Opening her mouth big, she bit into the food, chewing it just like she'd seen her daddy doing. It felt really good in her mouth, but soon it began to heat up, her making little sounds in response - so this was spicy. Still, she worked to chew it all, to finish it. And when there was little of it left, she slowly swallowed by instinct, before smiling at her daddy.

"I like it" she said brightly, with a little grin, not noticing the bits stuck to her face.

Her daddy was proud, or maybe impressed; she didn't know exactly, but it was good. "Wow, you got an iron stomach" he said, before gently rubbing her hair, which she liked. "We can do a full course of extra spicy food tonight if you want."

She definitely liked spicy, so she nodded with a smile. "Mmm-hm."

"Okay, let's not get carried away" her mommy said, drawing her attention. "I'm not cooking anything nuclear."

"Well, you heard the lady" daddy said gently.

She didn't understand everything they said, but she liked what daddy had said. "You heard the lady" she breathed softly, to which they both laughed at, and she liked that even better! She also liked how mommy softened at their laughter.

/

After she'd eaten, she felt really heavy, and her eyes had closed on their own. Mommy and daddy had been so nice to help her rest, and here she dozed in the chair, deep in the sense of dreams.

She couldn't hear much of anything, but she could feel her family close by, and that made her content.

_"-to her either"_

_"Hmm, you really don't?"_

_"I don't know what it is, I mean, we just met her and all... but having her here, it's made our little cabin feel like a real home. Don't you think so?"_

_"...Mmh-hm."_

She didn't hear anything else, but still, those words alone made her feel so warm. They loved her, and made her part of their little family, and she never wanted that to change.

"Mommy" she breathed softly. "Daddy."

/

_Town of Beginnings, Floor 1_

That next day, the three of them were going someplace else, which they called 'Town of Beginning' or something. She didn't know why, not fully, but still she got to be with her family, which was all she needed. However, there was a little bonus; she was riding on her daddy's back the entire time! He must be so strong to hold her up, and to walk without any effort at all.

"It's been forever since I've been back here" her daddy spoke, a little quiet.

"Me too..."

She reacted a little; they sounded as if this place brought back bad memories. She was a little sad; what had happened here?

Then: "What do you think?" her mommy asked, no longer sad for some reason. "Do any of these buildings look familiar?"

Familiar? Slowly, she looked across the town, and all the buildings and people who went by - however, none of them looked anything other than new to her. This made her sad: "I don't know" she breathed, sad, holding herself closer to her daddy.

"Hey, don't worry about it" he said gently to her. "The Town of Beginnings is a big place. So, how about it? Shall we start at the central market?"

She didn't know that place, but then, her daddy hadn't been asking her. And when they got there, she noticed it seemed smaller than usual, as they walked between paths between buildings - and while they walked, her mommy asked her daddy a question, something about how many 'players' were in the town right now. Her daddy answered, and she listened, but mostly she was curious about this place. She did notice however, that her daddy and mommy's answer seemed to say that this place should have a lot of people... but there weren't many at all.

What was going on?

_"Leave those children alone!"_

_"Look! It's that daycare bitch! We've been waiting for you!"_

She shrank against her daddy's back; she didn't like that voice, it sounded so scary, like they wanted to hurt someone. Because of that, she missed how her mommy and daddy's softness disappeared, and determination took it's place as they went toward the voices. And the voice's continued to talk as her mommy and daddy raced toward them:

_"Leave them alone and let them go!"_

_"*chuckle* You make it sound as if we're doing something illegal, babycakes. We're just teaching them how things work around here, you know, making sure they pay their way and such. It's all part of the Army's job, ma'am."_

_"That's right; everyone's gotta pay their taxes. *laughter*"_

The woman called out to the children, asking if they were okay... no answer, other than a grunt; the scary men weren't letting her get close enough to make sure, she was sure of it somehow! Then it got worse, the woman trying to say it'd be okay, but the children didn't have what the Army guys wanted, and they wouldn't hesitate to take it from them! The woman was just preparing to fight when they finally arrived-

With easy movements, her mommy and daddy ran straight at the big men, and jumped over them with little effort. Then daddy placed himself between the big men and the children, every muscle tense, giving every impression he would fight (and win), even with herself on his back. The big men were unsure about this situation, even as her mommy assured the children that they'd be okay.

The the big men got over it, asking who the 'hell' they were, and what they were doing... least before the bigger scary man stepped forward. Then he 'guessed' that they were all new here, because they're with the Army and they don't mess with them! She shrank a little more as he drew a sword to prove his point, and her daddy only tensed more.

"Kirito, take care of Yui."

Her daddy agreed, and she was worried as her mommy stepped forward to face the men, taking out a sword-like weapon. But somehow, deep down inside, something told her mommy would win.

The big man chuckled, challenging her to do her best- Mommy simply stabbed him in the face. The blast whipped at all their hair, and the man fell unhurt, but only got up far enough to see her mommy standing over him, weapon raised high... then he was blasted backward again. She held onto her daddy tightly, but what she saw didn't frighten her at all, strangely.

"Oh don't worry, it's a safe zone; your HP won't deplete no matter what I do" her mommy said to the bigger man on the ground, her voice have some sort of anger underneath it. "There's just a feeling of getting knocked off your feet - even so, a fight with me is still gonna scare the hell of you."

At that point, the bigger man was truly scared, trying to fun away... but her mommy didn't let him without another attack. Then the man pretty much screamed that his other friends do something, but her mommy was the very picture of determination, and they hesitated. Then they all turned and ran, and once they were out of sight, only then did her mommy and daddy relax. And after the shock wore off, the children and the woman went to her mommy, saying she was 'so awesome' and thanking her for what she did. It made her a little embarrassed, but also glad.

Still, something about what she'd seen looked familiar, and she was worried.

"You see that?" her daddy said, in a strange happy tone. "Your mommy's crazy strong right?"

She breathed out; crazy?"

_Terror..._

She looked up at the sky, feeling weak. "Their hearts" she breathed, sad, slowly reaching up for it as if she could reach them. "Everyone's hearts are..."

_Despair..._

"Yui? - "What's wrong, Yui!?" - "Yui, what's the matter!?"

"Th-Their hearts... their hearts" she breathed weakly, sadder than she'd ever felt before.

_Rage..._

"Yui, what's wrong?"

She heard her mommy, but the sadness was overwhelming, and she buried herself into her daddy's shoulder. "I-" she breathed weakly, the sadness getting stronger. "I was never here... in this place... I was always alone! In the dark!

_Insanity..._

In that moment, it was as if the emotions of 6,000+ people washed over her in an instant.

She screamed, her body jerking as she trembled from the force of the emotions, with enough force to unbalance her from daddy's shoulders. And though she did not see it, her scream caused the area to flicker and distort, instinctively causing her mommy and other people nearby to cover their ears, flinching from the intensity of the distortion.

It passed as quickly as it came, and soon all she felt was her suddenly falling to the ground.

Her mommy was quick to react, catching her before that happened: "No, Yui!"

And she trembled. "Mommy! I'm scared!" she breathed, weak and trembling, pushing her closer to her as she felt close to crying. "Mommy! Mommy!" By instinct, still trembling, she looked at her daddy, not hearing anything she said... then the weakness became too much for her.

/

When she awoke, it was in a different place, with many other children, and she did feel a little better than before. But as she said, she didn't know how or why things happened as they did, and that worried them. She was worried too; what was that? She didn't want anything to happen to her, or to worry her parents. But what could she do?

Well, for now anyway, she ate these biscuits, which were pretty good. And while she ate, her mommy and daddy talked with the woman they had helped earlier, and if she'd seen her before. The answer was no, and that she took care of a lot of kids, but she'd never seen her before - which meant they didn't know what to do. To help their sadness though, she gave her mommy a biscuit with a smile, and her mommy did feel a little better. Plus she got her hair rubbed, which she also liked.

Then she was distracted by a knock on the door. When her mommy and daddy and the woman went to answer it, she stayed close to them, hugging her daddy's arm close (he didn't mind).

The new woman introduced herself as Yulier, and there was some tension for a moment, but it faded after the woman thanked them for 'putting those men in their place'. She briefly wondered at that, but thought it must have meant how her mommy had defeated them with little effort. Then she heard that the new woman was asking them for their help.

Her explaining the situation took awhile, and she felt herself nodding off, but she thought that was because of earlier making her weak. So she drank her tea a little, hoping it would make her stronger.

She still got the situation; this woman wanted to rescue a man who was trapped, and make sure he got out safely. And by the sound of it, this man was really really important to her.

"Kirito! Asuna! I beg you; for Thinker's sake, please help me rescue him!" the woman said.

A small moment of silence. "If you think we can help get Thinker out of there, we'd be glad to help you" her mommy said. "However... well, we'd like to make sure you're telling the truth."

"I'm sorry!" the woman said, her tone more intense, bent over. "I know we just met and I'm asking a lot from you! But, when I think about him trapped alone down there- I-I feel, like I'm going insane!"

There was a moment of silence, where the woman's tears fell a little.

"It's okay, mommy" she said softly, to their surprise. "Everything she's been telling you is the truth."

"Yui?" her mommy breathed. "You mean you can tell that?"

She nodded, before making a sound. "Mmm-hm. I don't know how I know she is, but, she is" she finished cheerfully. Her mom looked at her for a moment, and she continued to smile, right until her daddy laughed, surprising them all.

"If anything, I'd rather trust her and regret it than not trust her and regret it" he said mildly. "Let's go. It'll all work out, right?" he asked, with a big grin, to which her mommy slowly softened. "Whatever you say, mister 'easy-going'" she said to him, almost playful.

Then she said she'd help, to the woman's intense relief, to which she was happy to feel.

Her daddy gently patted her head. "Stay here and wait for us, okay?" he asked gently.

"No! I'm coming too!" she exclaimed; the idea of being away from her mommy and daddy was unacceptable!

They tried hard to say it was too dangerous for her to come, to make her stay, but she would not listen. In fact, she wouldn't let go of her daddy's arm until they said otherwise!

/

_Underneath Floor 1_

So she rode on her daddy's shoulders, happy to be with them, even as they wandered underneath the town. Plus she was giggling a little at how she'd won against them trying to make her wait away from them. And as they wandered through the place, her mommy and daddy talked with the woman named Yulier, saying they didn't know this dungeon had existed before, and other such things. Eventually though, they came across this batch of stairs, except they led down instead of up.

Holding onto her mommy's hand, she made a sound in wonder at this, then she looked up. "Don't worry, I'm not afraid!" she said brightly, to her mommy's little giggle. To the woman, her mommy said she was tougher than she looked, and her daddy gave an approving "Mmm-hm", plus something about being a fine swordswoman one day.

Either way, she agreed, and they all laughed a little. She enjoyed that, but even in the middle of it, she couldn't miss that the woman didn't join in - it's not that she wasn't able to laugh or smile, but right now she was just so worried about the man they were trying to rescue.

This made her sad at first, but then she switched to bright; the faster they rescue him, the faster she'll see her smile.

They walked for a good while, through more paths that looked a lot like the last ones - but they walked like they knew where they were going; that was good enough for her.

Then her daddy stopped, and she briefly wondered, before she saw why: dozens of frog enemies, their four eyes glowing red one-by-one.

Without a word, her daddy pulled out both his swords, then he rushed forward with a roar, slicing through them.

She didn't think she'd start giggling during this, but she soon found out why; her daddy was happy out there, doing that! He was happy slicing up frogs! Her daddy was so strong and awesome as well, liking what he did! She even started jumping up and down a little in her mommy's arms, even as they talked about how her daddy was happy out there, 'getting his battle on'. Then they started talking over something different, looking over something that hovered just above her - curious, she leaned up on her tip-toes, trying to see what they were looking at.

All she really saw was this red dot, but she heard enough to know that that spot was where the man was, the one they were trying to rescue.

Then: "Whew! Man I fought my butt off!"

She smiled, happy that her daddy was still happy - and in his happiness, daddy pulled something out of nowhere; what looked to be a leg from the frogs, except it was different than before. Her mommy's reaction was scared though, but differently than actual fear, which slightly confused her - though the mention of cooking it as food made her eager. Mommy had other plans though, taking it and throwing it away, where it vanished in bursts of light.

This only confused her more.

And it only lead to daddy irritatingly holding out a lot more frog legs, and asking what he was gonna do with them... this only lead to a lot more flying frog legs, even as her mommy and daddy argued, but not actually mad at each other. And so she remained confused; how could people act like this if they weren't actually mad at each other?

She felt the other woman's reactions as well, before it changed; she slowly found it amusing, and even giggled a little.

"You smiled!" she said brightly, surprising everyone else and stopping what they were doing. "I've never ever seen you smile before!"

The woman was surprised by what she said, but after a second, slowly smiled back at her. This only made her happier, and she expressed it quite well, then her mommy took her hand.

"Come on, let's go" came the soft voice.

She eagerly did so.

* * *

**And so her experiences with her family continue - but things will begin to change :/**


	3. Truth

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_SAO Dungeon, underneath Floor 1_

She went down the steps happily, quickly joining her daddy and mommy - this place was very long, but she was having fun down here! Still, the journey was a long one, and eventually she started dozing off on her mother's back, not that either of them minded that.

Her daddy poking her cheek was a little annoying though, but she knew he was just playing with her.

When they began talking though, their voices different from before, she tried to wake up as fast as she could. When she came to, she saw the woman ahead of them, rushing forward toward this white-lighted room, her mommy and daddy following quickly.

"Yulier!" a figure from the room called.

"Thinker!" the woman called back, with equal amounts of relief and happiness in her voice.

The entire family smiled at each other, knowing that she really did care for him.

"No, stay away! The corridor's rigged!"

Now she was suddenly worried, and things started happening so fast - Daddy rushed ahead of them, even as her mommy yelled "Stop! Wait Yulier!", but the woman didn't hear her. "Come back!"

Her daddy rushed into Yulier, forcing them back to the ground... and avoiding the scythe that would have gone through her right where she'd been!

Daddy rushed forward to fight the thing, even as her mommy came up to the woman, making her get down. "Yulier, take care of Yui" she said to her, causing her to make a sound. "Mommy?" she asked, but didn't get an answer even as the woman stirred her toward the room. She didn't want to be apart from them, but the thing out there was dangerous. Her daddy argued that he could buy her mommy some time, but mommy said to Yulier and Thinker to take her and run - "Hurry! There isn't time!"

"Mommy!" she breathed, worried; she didn't want this to happen!

Even so, unnoticed, being in this room was doing something to her...

The two of them prepared their crystals, even as her mommy and daddy fought the thing... but then she saw them flung across the room, barely able to get up, and their health less than half.

She clenched her fist, and in that moment, everything came back to her.

The crystals began to work-

She ran forward.

"Yui! - Come Back!"

It was too late; they were gone, and she continued to walk forward until she stood face-to-face with The Grim Reaper. She felt her mommy and daddy's emotions; confusion, worry, terror that they couldn't stop this, and much more.

"What are you doing!? Get away from it! - Yui!"

The Grim Reaper prepared to attack her as well.

She felt no fear. "Daddy, mommy; it's okay" she said.

The Grim Reaper flung it's scythe at her-

"YUI!"

-and collided with a purple hexagonal force-field, of sorts. It was enough to send the creature reeling backward from the force, even as she hadn't moved at all - above her, the 'Immortal Object' warning continued to thrum.

"An Immortal Object?"

Even as the Grim Reaper tried to figure out what just happened, she slowly rose into the air, her expression fairly blank. She held out her hand, speaking in her mind _"System Command: Generate Object. ID: Object Eraser"_ - within seconds, it materialized, first as an expanding mass of flame. Then it took the form of a flaming sword that was literally twice as big as she was, in addition to changing her appearance to how it was meant to be. But there was no weight to it; it was not a player's object, subject to gravity and strength. It was a tool to be used as any other might be.

The Grim Reaper recoiled a bit at the fact that she now wielded a weapon, least as it understood it. She did not care how it was regarded; this thing was going to be erased for threatening her family.

With practiced movements she'd learned from her family's data, she moved the sword in an arc above her head, then she leapt straight forward for an overhand strike. The Grim Reaper moved to block it, and the two objects collided with each other... but it was useless; the Object Eraser broke through his scythe with little effort, making contact during with it's skull. Her expression didn't change the entire time, and she moved away as the flames engulfed the creature, it's echoing 'scream' being it's last action as it was erased from virtual existence.

The Object Eraser was soon removed from her hands, but not by her choice.

She knew what was coming next, whether now or eventually, but she didn't care; she had saved her family, and that was all that mattered.

There was silence in the corridor as her parents processed this, slowly getting up behind her.

"Yui?" they both breathed, though at different times.

Despite herself, she did smile; they were shocked, and a little overwhelmed, but it hadn't really changed their feelings toward her.

"Daddy, mommy" she breathed, slowly turning to look at them, still smiling. "It's okay, I remember everything now."

/

Within a minute, she had relocated them inside the safe zone, where Yulier and Thinker had been before they teleported away. She sat on the GM console, even as they stood about two feet away from her.

"Yui" Asuna breathed, worried. "Say something. You remember who you are?"

"Yes" she breathed, before looking at them, with a smile. "Kirito, Asuna."

It was the first time she'd ever correctly spoken their names out loud, or thought of them like that, as a little girl that was - their shock was similar.

"Everything in SAO is controlled by a single, massive system - it is called Cardinal. It was designed to operate entirely on it's own, without any human intervention" she said, as if the words didn't control her fate. "It's function is to regulate the balance of SAO, according to it's own discretion - from monsters and NPC AI, to drop rates for items and money; everything here is controlled by the processes the Cardinal system executes. That includes the psychological care of the players..."

She glanced down a bit, and spoke her full name. "Mental Health Counseling Program Prototype 001, Codename: Yui" she breathed, before looking up. "That is who I am."

The revelation stunned both of them, but showed most prominently Asuna's face. "You're a program?" she breathed, shocked. "An AI?"

This, along with the entire situation, made her sad. "I was designed to put players at ease with me" she continued, the sadness beginning to well up inside her. "That's why I was given the ability to emulate complex emotions... so, nothing about me is real. Not even my tears" she breathed, her tone still the same as before, even as tears began to fall. "I'm so sorry, Asuna."

She didn't want it to be true, any of it, but she couldn't say otherwise.

"Oh, Yui..." Asuna breathed, trying to reach toward her, but a motion prevented her. "So... what about your amnesia? Can that even happen to an AI?"

"Two years ago, on the day of the official launch, and for reasons I never understood, the Cardinal program banned me from interacting with any of the players" she said, tears continuing to fall, remembering it all vividly. "I wasn't allowed to assist them; I wasn't allowed to do anything except continue monitoring their mental states... their situation, in a word, horrible."

_"Uh! No don't!"_

_The player jumped off anyway, to her absolute horror and everyone else's - he burst apart the moment he hit the system fall-death limit. The expressions of the people who had witnessed this had been soul-shattering._

"Terror. Despair. Rage. Insanity" she spoke, her voice hitching every so slightly. "Under normal circumstances, my function would have to go to such players immediately... but I wasn't permitted any contact with them. Little by little, errors began piling up inside of me, and I fell apart. Then, one day, I saw two players - their mental parameters were vastly different from anything I had seen among the others. There was joy, and peace... and there was something there as well."

She hadn't spoken it, but everyone in the room knew what it was; love. Kirito and Asuna were truly staggered by what they had just heard, even if it expressed itself only in small sounds.

"I wandered through the playing field, hoping to get as close to both of you as I could, without being detected."

"So, that's why you were out in the forest..." Asuna breathed, a little weak.

"Yes, that's why" she breathed, the tears continuing to intensify. "I've wanted to meet the two of you for the longest time! That's strange, isn't it? It should be impossible for me to think things like that! I'm not human; I'm a program after all!"

This was wrenching Asuna's heart, but there was a strange something else there, and her hands came together over it. "Yui" she breathed, still weak. "Maybe what you're feeling are real human emotions?"

She slowly shook her head, weak, but not in denial. "I don't know" she breathed just as weak. "I'm confused. Nothing makes sense. I don't know what's happened to me."

No one said anything, then Kirito slowly stepped forward, bending down in front of her - his expression just as gentle as she'd ever seen. "You aren't just some program anymore" he said gently, but also geniunely. "The system can't control you anymore. Listen, if you want something, all you have to do is say it - go ahead, tell us what you want."

She breathed out, feeling as weak as she'd ever been. What she wanted?

Memories burst forth in her mind, as quickly as could be, but she saw all them perfectly-

"What I want-"

She slowly reached up, both hands trying to touch him, "I want-".

Her eyes were teary, but she was smiling; Yui-MHCP001 and their daughter were one and the same. "I want to stay with you forever!" she breathed, with all the emotion she could muster, even as her vision blurred. "Daddy! Mommy!"

Her mommy breathed, and within seconds, with tears of her own, hugged her as tightly as she could. "You will" she breathed, a little weak from the emotions, but still soft. "We'll be together forever, Yui!"

"Yeah" her daddy breathed, joining in on her other side. "Remember, you're our child."

Their child, their daughter - her family. That's all she'd ever wanted...

But it couldn't escape the reality that her system was still attached to.

"...it's too late."

Stirring from their hug, confused, her daddy asked 'for what?'

"Look" she breathed, slowly placing a hand on the GM console, which began to light slightly. "This is actually a console admins can use to gain emergency access to - I used it to delete the monster in the corridor. And now... because I disobeyed Cardinal's directive, the system is running a check on my program. It thinks I'm a foreign object now... I'll probably be deleted at once."

The words were hard to say, harder than anything she'd ever done... but she would not waste this time. She would be happy, and enjoy being part of this family, for as long as she could - that's all she'd ever want, even her existence was about to end.

Her statement greatly shocked her parents; "Oh no - There's gotta be a way around it!"

She merely looked at them, smiling. "Daddy, mommy, thank you" she breathed sincerely, smiling as brightly as she could, even with tears in her eyes. "This is goodbye."

She could feel this tearing her parents' hearts in two. "No!" her mommy cried, quickly hugging her and never letting her go, her voice breaking more and more. "I don't want that! Stay with us! _Please_ stay! We just started living like a real family!"

The hug only made her happier, showing her how much her mommy cared about her - and she knew daddy felt the same. At the same time, she felt her program beginning to be scanned for deletion, and this rendered itself as a glow, startling her parents.

"Yui, don't go!" her daddy cried out, instantly rushing forward, taking her hand in both of his.

See? She knew he felt the same.

"Whenever the two of you are together, you have a way of making people smile" she breathed, tears everywhere, but still content and happy. "From now on, and for me, please continue my work. Keep helping people. Share your happiness with all of them!"

Her program started being deleted...

"No, I can't! I won't!" her mommy cried out, even louder than before. "You have to stay with us! I can't be happy without you!"

The words should have made her sad, but they didn't; she saw them as the acts of love they were. Her mommy and daddy wanted her to stay more than anything else in the world, but even without her, they would honor her memory the best that they could. She couldn't wish for anything else.

She held up a hand, caressing her mother's cheek. "Smile, mommy" she breathed, the happiest she'd ever felt.

And with that, her physical form disappeared, with the last part to go being the hand caressing her mommy's cheek. All that was left of her were particles of light, essentially ones and zeros of game data now - and yet somehow, she still had some sensation, some insights into what she was seeing. And she would continue to enjoy it for as long as she could. And so she heard her mommy cry out in despair, utterly heartbroken, and how her daddy's sadness slowly turned to absolute rage and determination.

"CARDINAL! No, KAYABA! You're gonna learn that things don't always go the way you want them to!"

Even in her disassociated state, she felt surprise when her daddy was hard-pressed to work the GM console.

"K-Kirito, what are you-?"

"If I'm fast enough, I might be able to use the GM's account to access the system!"

She lost her sense of vision, or hearing, so she was unable to see what he was trying to do... but somehow, she felt warm that he was trying the impossible, once again. Even still, as bits of data, she felt the system's presence starting to congregate around her, ready to delete her as per the system's orders, once it had finished with all the higher functions that had already been deleted, including her admin credentials. She never wanted it to come, but she would not resist; her stay with her family had been a happy one.

The system moved in-

But at the absolute last second, something yanked every single bit of her data away from the system, to her surprise. Having no control over anything, she could not understand what was going on, other than it was forcing her to form something else entirely...

When next she was aware of anything, it was the sense of... of pressure. It wasn't enough to crush her, but it was a firm grip, as if determined to protect her. And also, she slowly realized she had a form again, but she couldn't move. Then, despite the fact that she couldn't see or anything like the human senses, the darkness parted into light, and she saw... uh, mommy!

But she couldn't speak either; what was going on?

_"What's this?"_ she heard, somehow.

_"The system was about to reject Yui's admin credentials - the only thing I could do was turn her into a game object."_

Her surprise was heavy, and had a sense of wonder in it.

_"So... this is...?"_

_"You're holding Yui's Heart."_

She couldn't believe it; he had made sure she would live! She would still be with her mommy and daddy for awhile longer! She felt her whole form tremble, and wondered if her game object self trembled, or if that was just her mommy's hand.

/

As it turned out, they made her game object self as part of a necklace, which aside from when they were clearing the game, was usually always worn around her mommy's neck. And none of them had minded at all; she was always gonna be close to her mommy and daddy now.

_"Hey, Kirito? If the game does get cleared... what's gonna happen to Yui?"_

_"Don't worry; I fixed it so that her game data was saved to the local memory on my NerveGear. When we get back, recreating her the way she was isn't going to be easy. But if there's a way, we'll find it._

_"Okay... as long as we can be a family again. We'll see her when she gets back! Her first child!"_

_"Yeah, we'll see her again."_

This had made her so happy, that she couldn't even express it properly; now she could be with them even after the game was done, when they cleared it, and got back to the real world. Maybe she still couldn't interact with them, but she would be with them, and that was all that mattered to her.

"Good luck, mommy" she breathed in her mind, hoping that somehow, they could hear it one day.

* * *

**Completely sad, but still not done - after all, Yui still exists as a game object, and then she was present for about half of the Alfhiem arc (and I say 'half' only because some of that was in the real world).**

**And for anyone who'****s wondering, that is the official name for the GM 'sword' that Yui wielded.**


	4. Hope

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_SAO, Floor 22_

_"-how am I supposed to do a Switch move with a fishing pole?"_

_"You're the only one I know who can figure it out."_

She heard their words, and only that, but she was still happy - they were so nice to help this old man out.

_"What if you catch it? Will you keep it?"_

_"Is that even possible?"_

After that, she felt the lights come off, due to a sense that she couldn't explain... and more than that, instead of answering, her mommy simply lay down directly on her daddy. She didn't even need her senses to know that mommy was smiling, completely happy and content, warmth radiating off her every second. She treasured that warmth, because this must be what love physically felt like. And the warmth continued as her mommy and daddy talked, not just about the old man, but about how people were living normal lives in this virtual game. And how they felt that, with their help, they owed it to those people to help clear the game.

Then at one point, her mommy got up a little, to help look at her daddy. Somehow, she could see this little scene herself, as if she still had her eyes. _"Everyone expects great things from you now"_ her mommy breathed gently. _"And guess what, so do I. Talk about pressure, huh?"_

Her daddy merely smiled, looking down a little, then his hand slowly brushed against her game object (she felt happy to feel his love, in the fatherly way, even if it was like this). _"Yeah"_ he breathed softly. _"I promised I'd save everyone... hell of a thing to live up to."_

Then his hand moved off, and her mommy slowly laid down on him again. _"Well, they'll understand if you take tonight off"_ she breathed, extra soft, her head against his neck.

_"Yeah."_

She smiled in her mind, just happy to see them like this, and it continued long after they had fallen asleep.

/

_Later_

She wished she could still be with them, but also knew they would be okay; if she was worn around her mommy's neck while they fought to clear the game, something could hit her, and then truly destroy her. That would utterly crush them, and she didn't want that to happen.

Still, she wished she still had the ability to access the system. To watch her mommy and daddy, or just to pass the time, if nothing else.

In her mind, she did the mental version of holding her hands together.

However, some time later, this kind of flickering went on in her mind, to her surprise. But it didn't seem to be something she'd done, and when it happened again, she was sure of it... but still confused. Briefly, an image came forward, blurry, but still enough to give her a sense of people. It went through several more of these quality flickers, then it suddenly sharpened, and-

Huh, daddy!?

He was grimly determined, standing aloof amidst the cheering of other people, specifically what seemed to be a kind of pre-battle cheer or something. His fist clenched... and was taken by another softer hand.

_"Everything's gonna be fine"_ her mommy breathed in his ear. _"I won't let anything happen to you, promise. Make sure you protect me too, okay?"_

He smiled back. _"Yeah, you know I will."_

She smiled a little, subconsciously at least, then breathed out in worry when the 'picture' started flickering again... soon she couldn't make out anything again. However, strangely, it didn't disappear on her, and appeared to be struggling between whether to show her more or just vanish.

She hoped with all her virtual heart; please show her them again. Even if just in bursts, so that she could make sure they were okay.

It took a little time, but eventually it decided on showing her- and she gasped; they were in the middle of the 75th Boss Floor!

_"It's the Skull-"_ Klein breathed.

_"Reaper"_ her daddy finished.

On her screen, the terrifying centipedal skeleton Boss screeched in her face, causing her to jump back... or she would have, if she still had a body. Because of this, she missed the man known as Heathcliff issuing orders, but she did vaguely hear her daddy ordering other scared soldiers to get away from the thing. They obeyed, but they were still too late... one hit was enough to send them flying, and to kill them.

_"T-That was one hit!"_

_"Man we are so dead!"_

The Skull Reaper growled at it's remaining opponents, it's skeletal arms moving in ways that were simply not natural. Now she was truly afraid; her mommy and daddy were up against the toughest Floor Boss since the 50th! Truly, aside from the unknown stats of the 100th Boss (even to her), this one was intentionally more powerful and faster than all the regular ones, to represent the step up in difficulty! And with this one, one hit to any of the vital areas would overcome even the most powerful armor and health that could be obtained before this floor! Even if they were at max level too!

_"Look out!"_

"No, don't!" she cried out, terrified as her daddy blocked the thing's scythes with both dual blades. Even without system access, she could see the shoulder wound, and knew his health was dropping rapidly - she wanted the soldier he was protecting to make it too, but this was still serious! She trembled as The Skull Reaper's other scythe came straight toward him... and was blocked by the man known as Heathcliff, to her relief. Then her mommy forced the scythe and the Boss off her daddy.

_"If we block it together we have a chance. Come on, we can do this!"_ she said, helping him up.

_"Okay"_ her daddy agreed, then they rushed forward. She made a little sound, both of nervousness and anticipation; she hoped they would stay okay!

_"Me and Asuna will deal with the scythes!"_ her daddy yelled, even as Heathcliff blocked one scythe, and they dodged the other. _"Everyone else, flank it and attack!"_ he continued, as they both worked and broke open it's guard (and kept it's attention). She heard the others acknowledging this, and the various battle cries as they worked to attack, and dodge around this thing's reach. The entire time, her screen would move across the battle at random, and to her distress, there was this one moment where the Skull Reaper's tail slammed into a group of three. Two of the soldiers were killed instantly, but to her relief, the third man known as Agil survived thanks to the hit only being on his arm (and he cursed the Boss for the others' deaths).

Then the screen moved again.

_"Ready, Kirito?"_

_"Yeah!"_

The Skull Reaper moved with terrifying speed, sliding and targeting at random, as it's irregular programming dictated. However, despite this, she saw the ones named Klein and Agil rushing forward with battle cries. Klein moved in a blur, suddenly directly underneath the Skull Reaper's frame, his sword glowing red by use of a Sword Skill - he yelled as he stabbed the thing in the spine, causing it to shudder. This only lead to an opening that Agil exploited, screaming as he slammed his green-glowing ax into it's spine from above.

This two-hit combo enraged the Boss, and it lunged with a growl - her parents blocked it sideways with fierce glares, forcing it off them as they ran forward. The Skull Reaper attempted to strike them with both scythes, but they dodged all attacks and, screaming, blasted the Boss with their blades. In that moment, she saw their fierce determination to beat this thing, their emotions and desires so similar it was like they were working as one.

It warmed her heart, even as the worry pounded.

Now even angrier, the Skull Reaper targeted them again-

-they were way ahead of him, their three weapons already glowing a blue-white-

-it drew back it's scythes to take care of them; she whimpered.

_"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"_

With a ferocity that was unmatched, just as the scythes might have hit them, her parents struck the thing directly in the face with their full might. To say that it was flung away would have been an understatement; when it got up, extremely angry now, it's skeletal face was severely cracked.

Her parents were definitely amazing; she just wished they weren't in danger right now!

Then the screen started flickering again, causing her to try and stop it; but she couldn't, no longer having a human form. Then to her distress, it vanished entirely, leaving her without any connection to her parents.

No! She wouldn't believe that!

She focused hard on that.

She loved them with all her virtual heart, and she knew they loved her with all of theirs too - they were still connected. If anything would happen to them, she would feel it, even in this form.

/

She waited, trembling but hopeful, that her parents would remain okay.

She'd gotten a brief image, thanks to her hope; the Skull Reaper on it's last small batch of health. And it couldn't even move, thanks to the never-ending swarms of light from Sword Skills striking it, constantly interrupting it's ability to act.

She'd been relieved, knowing that they'd figured out it's weakness; the more health it lost, the slower it got, and it got considerably more susceptible to the damage interruption modifier from weapons. In return, it's attack would increase to absurd levels, that no player could have withstood under any conditions without cheating, but that was a moot point at that stage of the game.

After that, it had been quiet again, except for a last burst that showed the Skull Reaper turning into light and disappearing, but she continued to hope.

"Mommy" she thought to herself. "Daddy."

And she waited even more...

_"Asuna..."_

She breathed out; daddy? Wait... his tone sounded weak.

_"Asuna... you can't... you can't be..."_

What did he mean!?

_"I'm sorry... goodbye."_

Her entire mental state gasped at that; if she'd had her body, she would have torn out her virtual vocal cords. No! It couldn't be! They'd beaten the 75th Boss, there was nothing else on that floor, and nothing on the 76th was capable of wielding the extremely-low-chance-of-causing-instant-death blades! Her mommy couldn't be dead!

Just then, as if responding to her state, an image suddenly burst into being again.

Her daddy picked up Lambent Light, moving with extreme slowness, his opponent Heathcliff. Then he moved again, raising his Elucidator... but the swing had no emotion, no speed, no technique, no... anything. He moved as if he were dead, and his opponent barely had to dodge.

Her entire self was shaking; if she could have cried, she wouldn't be able to see at all. It couldn't be... her mommy was dead... and her daddy was so broken by this, that he couldn't even feel rage. Across from him, his opponent sighed, then knocked her daddy's weapon out of his hands - he barely reacted, as if it hadn't happened, and he didn't try to get it back. Then Heathcliff moved again-'

"NOOO!"

Daddy barely reacted to being stabbed as well, slowly looking between the sword sticking through him, and the face of his opponent. When his vision closed, she knew it was seconds away, but she was still screaming for him to survive! Even one HP would be enough!

Her daddy's mouth opened a bit.

His form began to glow-

She broke apart; it was over.

But instead of turning completely white and breaking apart, Kirito's image only glowed enough to light up the area - and this still had form, as he gripped Lambent Light only tighter. He shook hard, and his teeth were gritted-

"What...?" she breathed weakly, utterly trembling and barely a moment away from insanity.

-he took a step forward, looking like every movement took tremendous effort. Even still, it was enough to unnerve his opponent, with something approaching total shock. Lambent Light was slowly raised, and the trembling only got worse, but he still gritted his teeth again.

Then he lunged forward, his expression twisted, and his eyes inexplicably a deranged yellow as he screamed!

It scared her, but she didn't know what else to do.

His opponent smiled... but the blow struck home anyway, and she watched intently.

Her daddy slowly breathed out, or the motion of it, before glancing down at her mommy's rapier... then he closed his eyes. The glow, which had stayed the same throughout this entire scene, began to intensify again, as it did on Heathcliff a moment later. They they both burst into light-

"DADDYYYYYY!"

The reaction she got was unexpected; the combined might of SAO's database spilled over into her brain. Staggered, she tried to figure out what was going on, but still shaking - as she slowly figured out, she had somehow gained access to the system itself. But, she was a game object; she couldn't do that anymore.

However, the servers soon provided her the answer... Heathcliff was in fact the game's creator, Akihkio Kayaba, who was meant to betray the players he had served with and was in fact the 100th Boss. Defeating him meant that the game was cleared... and moments ago, she had seen him killed. Now that he had been defeated, and the game cleared, all previous restrictions were gone - in that moment between cleared and the game's shutdown mode, anything could access the system if they were able to. Theoretically, nothing should be able to; all the remaining players had been logged out immediately upon the game's clear... but she was not a player.

Maybe her physical form was still a game object, but her mind was not.

She took in this revelation for a moment, then freaked out.

Mommy! Daddy!

With haste born of desperation, she accessed the servers connection to the player's life-signs, which were required to be monitored at all times prior to shutdown mode. If she had a body, she would have gasped, and cried... but as it was, she was severely stunned by what she saw.

_Life Signs_

_Kirito: Steady; Character Status: Dead_

_Asuna: Steady; Character Status: Dead_

And they stayed that way as the long seconds passed.

She was fairly sure her game object form trembled, even being unable to move. They were alive!

But how!?

She looked through all records, her AI mind capable of going through information much faster, and soon found it. Moments after their character deaths, Heathcliff (Kayaba, actually) had told the system to not send the signal that would fry their brains, out of respect for them! Even though he was responsible for trapping them, and her meeting them indirectly, she still silently thanked him for that. And in addition, she had slowly learned something else as well, from an otherwise obscure part of the code. It monitored lesser stats, such as the amount of time each Sword Skill should take to execute, how long it should take for status effects to wear off... and the amount of time it took between character death, and actual system response to do so.

Her daddy's status on that last one? A total of forty-five seconds, where the usual rate was one-to-two seconds.

She couldn't believe it at first; that wasn't possible.

But she also knew her daddy; he had a habit of doing the impossible, especially when he was determined. Somehow, using every fiber of his being, he had physically held off the system commands on his virtual body by sheer force of will, while still managing to stab the one responsible.

With whatever vision she had, she slowly looked down at the world of Aincrad... the sky expanded infinitely, but the floating castle itself was breaking apart, from the bottom up. She watched as bit-by-bit, it broke apart and continued to spread - in particular, the little cabin on the former Floor Twenty-Two. She couldn't know that at the same time, her family was watching this as well.

This made her sad, but only for a moment. More than anything, she slowly felt happy again, all previous indications of shock, horror and insanity gone - the voices of the players had gone silent. The survivors were all home now.

_"Mommy and daddy have survived, in the real world"_ she thought, feeling her game object self being crushed along with the rest of the cabin. _"They're safe... that's all that matters to me"_ she continued, knowing she was safe, as her game object data was saved on her daddy's Nervegear. _"And I'll always be with them, no matter what happens."_

And she cherished the happiness that she felt, till the very last moment, where her sense of mental self was slowly being erased along with the rest of SAO.

But she wasn't afraid, even if she would feel nothing as part of data on a Nervegear.

"Mommy, Daddy... I love you."

Then she was gone from SAO.

* * *

**Still sad... but luckily, now it'll get better.**


	5. Rebirth

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_Data stream_

She dreamed of her mommy and daddy.

She wasn't sure how exactly she did it, existing only as non-interactable data on her daddy's Nervegear rig, but somehow she managed it - and perhaps because of her situation, she was essentially sleeping anyway.

However, soon the sensations changed - what had once been daddy and mommy both playing with her (and daddy poking her cheek) became distracted when something happened to her data. Having been 'asleep' for a long while, she wasn't sure what to make of it, and had lost her habit of reaching out with her data because she was no longer able to.

But something had changed... that much she could tell, but she didn't know what to make of it.

Then something subtly shifted, and it was almost like she was moving... mmh, that almost felt like wind.

She made a purely instinctive sound; something had physically touched her, even if briefly.

Then her data changed again, dragging her along for it, a whirlwind as other data came together with her own. Having no control over this, she was worried; what was going on!?

However, she soon got her answer; she had taken a form, a physical presence, and it was still forming. The shapes it took, the pieces that it imitated, and more that it formed around her... she could feel herself breathing again. Wary, she slowly reached out... her hands moved slightly, and her breath paused when she commanded it. And more than that, the sensations kept coming in strong, and she could feel herself in the middle of a rush of air, somehow floating. She had a human body again...

Making a sound, she slowly opened her eyes, wondering at how this was possible. Who had done this?

Her vision was still working itself out, so what she saw was blurry... but her ears heard just fine:

"Hey Yui, it's me. Do you remember?"

She slowly gasped, and then her vision began working correctly.

The boy she saw below her, his hairstyle was nowhere near normal, and likely defied all known physics - and somehow his ears had become extremely pointed. But still... his voice, those eyes, and that warmth...

It was like a floodgate opened. "I do!" she breathed happily, feeling tears come to her eyes. "I remember you, daddy!"

He breathed out as well. "Yui!" he whispered, as happy as she'd ever seen him - and he eagerly opened himself for a hug when she floated down. "Daddy! Daddy!" she breathed, holding onto him. "Daddy."

He held her close, and easily kept one hand in her hair. "You're back; it's a miracle" he whispered, content.

She merely hugged him closer, which he chuckled at, giving her a little squeeze as well - but she looked up when he pulled them apart just a little. However, he was smiling, gently gesturing for her to sit down after he had, right on his lap. She brightened a little, and eagerly did so, happy to be close to him again. But still, she wondered, about many many things.

"So, do you know where you are or what's going on?" he asked gently, almost if as he read her mind.

She looked at him, making a little sound; no.

"Oh" he breathed, but gently. "Well, we're not in SAO anymore; we're in a totally different game now. It's called Alfhiem Online."

Well, that would certainly explain why her daddy looked different, even if it was mostly him. "I need a few seconds to access it" she said softly, placing her hands on her head, reaching out with her mind for the first time in so long. Not knowing the restrictions or the security, she went slow, at least by the terms of computer speed, only accessing in ways that would be available to anyone. As she expected, the information began pouring in, too much of it to take in at once... but she had safeguards against that.

She focused on the important basic stuff first; she would read the complexities of how his world, ALO, operated later. "From what I can tell, this world has been copied from the SAO Servers."

Her daddy was surprised, and even though he didn't show it much, she could tell; he was like that sometimes. "Really?" he asked.

"Yes" she said softly. "The engine, programming, and graphics format are exactly the same. The Cardinal program needs updating, but that's the only thing that stands out to me."

"Hmm" her daddy considered, fist to his chin. "That makes sense, since Argus was the company running SAO - they folded and RECTO took over. Yeah, and if RECTO's got all of Argus's technology, it figures they'd port it over" he continued, before looking at her. "Although, when I checked I still had my old skills and stats."

This surprised her. "Strange" she breathed, before smiling. "I'll take a look at your data and see what I find" she continued, before closing her eyes, focusing.

There it was, under 'Players' - she scrolled down, until she came to 'Kirito' (who's life signs were stable, she was glad to see). Now then...

"Very interesting" she whispered as the data came over her. "You're right; this is the same character data you used while in SAO. The formatting for save data is almost identical... whatever skills were similar in both games were ported over, and merged with your new character."

Secretly, she was glad for that; it meant her daddy looked almost exactly the same as he did previously, instead of something completely random, like the character generator would have done on it's own.

"Oh" her daddy breathed, bringing her back. "So that's why my Dual Wielding skill's gone..." he said, a little disappointed.

She understood that; it had been awesome.

"Not just that; all your items seem to be lost too" she said, gentle, but knowing how hard this would be for him. "You probably want to delete them, before the error detection program finds out."

Her daddy wasn't pleased, but he did see her point. "Yeah, I better" he merely said, before he brought up his menu, almost identical to the way it had been done in SAO (except it needed to be done with his other hand now). Soon he brought up his list of items, which were all questioned marked out, as the formatting for incompatible data showed. When it came time to delete them however, he hesitated, and she could see the struggle... however, though it took a little, he managed to press the 'Yes' button, and they were gone.

He let a great sigh, as if he'd done something harder than it actually was. "Okay" he breathed, still showing signs of this struggle, even as he turned to her. "What will I do about my Skill Level?"

"No one else can see it" she said gently. "Well, no one else but the Game Master and as long as he doesn't, you should be okay."

"Oh, awesome" he said in a strange tone, until it changed again. "Hmm, guess I'm not a Beater anymore; just a plain old cheater now" he said, somewhere between happy, interesting, and playful.

She didn't understand that last part, but she did recognize the terms - Beater, a combination between Beta Tester and cheater. In his early days, her daddy had bravely taken this title to draw hatred away from the other Beat Testers, so that they would be left alone. Cheater itself was self-explanatory, and she was a little worried about that; she knew her daddy wasn't a bad person, or one to disregard advantages, but how would others in this world treat him once they knew of his unusual status?

Then her daddy turned to her. "How are you being identified by the system?"

She briefly found herself at loss; how had she forgotten about that? She didn't show it though, closing her eyes and focusing, "Let's see" she breathed. "It's classifying me as a 'Player Support Program'. In the world of the game, I'm a Navigation Pixie..."

Oh! This she had to try out!

"Wuh, hey!"

She wasn't worried; she was just transforming, and she had full conscious control over the process. Within seconds, she had gone from a human-sized child to a much smaller version, feeling her clothes coming over her, the important stuff first. The flower-styled dress she now wore was pink, as was the accessories she wore, including the leg braces (she thought that was the term), her detached sleeves, and the choker thing she now wore. The only exception to this was the flower accessory in her hair, which was purple instead, but she didn't mind.

The newest sensation were the wings attacked to her back, somehow able to function through her clothes as if they weren't there. And despite only being connected to the system for about a minute, she had full knowledge of the game's flight system worked, and got into it easily!

She giggled, striking a little pose. "This is what I look like as a pixie!"

Her daddy was amazed, full-on staring at her, very close - because of her new height, she found that now she was roughly as big as his whole head, and his eyes were now as big as _her_ head.

"Woah" he breathed, reaching a finger forward.

She didn't see this until too late. "Mmh, no daddy that's annoying!" she whined, as he rubbed against her cheek, reminded of her dream. Not that she really hated it, but it was still something playful she didn't like.

Her daddy couldn't resist poking her four more times (which she had to get him for later), even as he talked. "You had admin privileges in SAO, right? Do you still have them?"

When he finally stopped, she rested her hands against his finger. "No" she said, a little sad. "The system will only allow me to access the wide-area maps, and the reference database."

Her daddy accepted this with a little 'Oh', then removed his finger from her grasp, leaving her to float there beside him - and she felt it when his emotions changed, though less so than when she'd been in SAO. "Listen, Yui" he breathed, slowly looking out at a point beyond what was right in front of them. "I think your mommy... might be stuck in here somewhere."

"Mommy!? Really!?" she breathed, excited, before the other part slowly sunk in; she instinctively flew to his shoulder. "What do you mean she's 'stuck'?"

"After SAO was cleared" he whispered, clearly wishing it was otherwise, "Asuna never woke up in the real world. I found out she was seen in Alfhiem. There's a picture, but it's too blurry to tell."

"What are we going to do?" she breathed sadly, worried.

"Well, I got a pretty good feeling where she might be" he said, a little lighter, but still sad. "It's something called the World Tree. I think it's over there."

Instinctively, even as he said World Tree, she looked it up in the database - it mentioned something about a Grand Quest, something that would be difficult to overcome, but an invaluable reward would be given to the race who could manage it. However, she also looked at the map, and compared her daddy's position to the location of the tree... but to her sadness, it was quite a far distance from here, even with flying. That sadness showed in her tone, in addition to the thought of Mommy being stuck up there: "Mommy's there? Really?"

He didn't answer, but she felt one thing from her daddy, stronger than all the others. It was complex, but it was determined... and she took it to mean that if mommy was up there, he would do whatever it took to get her out. And if she wasn't there, he would keep searching till he found her, and she would help (willingly). This gave her a moment of happiness, knowing it would be true, no matter what.

Then some other thought struck her daddy. "Uh, hang on a second" he said, turning to her on his shoulder. "I was supposed to start out the game in Spriggan territory... so how come I ended up here in this forest instead?"

In the split-second before she answered, she looked up the Spriggan race... ah yes, the type of fairy that was themed with black, and was well-known for it's illusion magic and treasure hunting abilities, among wall-running, night vision, and the ability to wield most any weapon without drawback or requirement. Apparently not the most popular race in the game... mmh, but it suited her daddy well!

Now, back to the question her daddy had asked... "I don't know" she answered, worried from the conflicted data. "The location data may be corrupted... or perhaps there was some interference?"

"Either way, it would have been nice if it'd put me down a little closer to the World Tree" he sorta agreed, before he slowly stood up, she flying up by instinct. "Well, let's go."

Then his wings showed up, similar in composition to hers, but styled much differently. "Hmm, so these are my wings... how do I fly with them?"

She knew the two ways of doing it, but figured she might as well present him with the technical one first, just to get used to the sensations; she'd teach him the other one later. "You have to access your controller" she said gently, holding out her hand and demonstrating as she went on, "Raise your left hand, then position your fingers like you're grabbing something."

Her daddy did as he was told, and it appeared in his hand.

"Pull it toward yourself to elevate, and push it away to descend. And move it left or right to turn."

"Okay" he breathed, before- "Woah!"

It was a little shaky on the first few feet, but he got control, to which she smiled at. "Hold down the button to accelerate, then ease up to decelerate."

Her daddy continued to try it out, nowhere near smooth, but he was learning.

"As long as your wings are shining, you can be airborne" she added gently from her position. "But you can't fly forever; you'll need to rest your wings at some point.

He heard her, but her daddy started chuckling as he got the hang of flying, clearly enjoying it, just as she did - soon he landed nearby. "This is great" he said. "I think I've got it down. Do me a favor; scan the map, and see where the nearest town is."

She barely had to look, least in terms of human time. "There's one in Sylph territory, west of here; it's called Swilvane, and it's the closest-"

She stopped, turning around and confusing her daddy ("Something wrong?").

"There are other players near here" she breathed, wondering at the fast moving icons; was someone being chased?

/

Long story short, there was.

Her daddy had come to the rescue of the player being ganged up on, a woman with long blond hair... but his entrance and landings could definitely use work. Anyway, the soldiers had laughed off his appearance and cool attitude, least till he easily killed two of them - the other had decided it was just better to get away, apparently something about his skills being too high to risk the death penalty. And secretly, she was glad it was just a virtual death penalty, rather than a real one.

But still, the way they treated the virtual death penalty frequently tended toward it being real... hmm, humans were so complicated.

Then her daddy had talked with the woman, after she'd told him about the players' Remain Lights, and it had been about how she was supposed to respond to this rescue. She'd been okay with that, until-

"You could burst into tears and throw your arms around me."

She knew it was a playful joke - he was that type - and the woman's reaction was anything but her going to do that ("Oh _piss off_, loser!"), but still, her reaction was a very instinctive one:

"No way!" she said loudly, from the confines of his pocket. "I _won't_ let her do that!"

This freaked her daddy out, and his hands protectively moved in front of the pocket. "Watch it! Keep out of sight!" he'd nearly hissed, but not actually angry at her.

It hadn't stopped her; "Mommy and me are the only ones allowed to hug daddy!" she said, flying around and placing herself protectively near his cheek.

"Wait, 'Daddy'!?"

Then Daddy quickly caught her, trying to cover this up. "Who, what?" he questioned. "Nothing, what-!"

The woman still came closer, enough to see her, or what was visible. "No way; is that one of those private pixies?" she asked.

This surprised her daddy, who sheepishly saw this as a way out of trouble (yeah, let him; she was still pouting). "Sorta" he breathed. "Heh-heh"

The woman hummed in a way that said she didn't fully buy it, but didn't press the issue.

After that, she asked what he was doing this far out- he answered that he was lost, and she burst out laughing, calling him weird. But introductions were still made, giving her name: Leafa, and introducing himself and her to Leafa. After that, it had talks of what next, partially for to give thanks for saving her - and after talks of what could happen to races who didn't belong to their natural cities, her daddy had still insisted that Leafa take him to Swilvane. And he did have a point; as long as he didn't do anything hostile, no one sane should attack him at all. Might be some tension though...

After that, Leafa had started to fly, but her daddy noticed that she did so without using her controller and asked about it.

"Well, there's a little trick to doing it" Leafa admitted. "Come on, turn around, but don't access your controller."

He did so without hesitation, initially making her pouty; she wanted to teach him all this!

"Feel where my hand is touching you?"

"Mmh-hm."

Still, she slowly softened; Leafa was just helping teach him and nothing more.

"-try it out."

Her daddy did, his muscles tensing hard, especially in his back. "Virtual bones and muscles..." he breathed to himself, before she saw his wings twitching, increasingly so, making her happy.

"Yeah, just like that! You've got it! Now trying doing the same thing, only harder."

He did, grunting at the effort, making her worry; he shouldn't be struggling that hard even to get off the ground... and so she missed the mildly playful smile that Leafa sported.

"Go!"

"WOOOOAHHHH!"

To her surprise, Leafa had slapped her daddy's back, and he instinctively soared up like a rocket, leaving them both in the dust. She looked up in wonder, already hearing the rustling of trees as he went past them with great speed.

_Thunk_

She gasped, even as Leafa freaked.

"Oh no!" she breathed, and within seconds they were above the tree line. "Daddy!" she called out, scared that he was hurt.

"Kirito! Are you okay!?"

The first few seconds were tense... then: "Waaaah!"

She turned, breathing out; she heard him, but which direction had that come from?

"Wooaaaahhhh!" he breathed again, visible this time and clearly flailing as he kept flying, mostly in circles. "How do I make it _stooooppp!?_"

Seeing him unhurt and in no danger, she looked at Leafa, and then they both just burst out laughing! "I-I"m sorry, daddy!" she said, in-between giggling. "But that's hilarious!"

Still flailing, still making noises at how out-of-control he was, her daddy wasn't amused but that just made it even funnier!

* * *

**_The_ most adorable character in Sword Art Online, and likely any other series out there XD That is all lol**


	6. Plans

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_ALO_

_Near Swilvane_

Man players could really fly fast in here! But knowing that and experiencing it were too different things!

Well, least her daddy had gotten full control over his flying...

"Uh, I can't go on!" she breathed, her energy about to give out from his extended fast flying. "I need a break!"

So, she safely maneuvered herself into daddy's shirt pocket, which was right next to his heart. And even in her exhaustion, she liked that, as well as the warmth he gave off even without it's steady thumping.

Soon after that, they approached the Sylph city of Swilvane, which was this really pretty green color. However, they soon hit a snag while fast approaching-

"Kirito, you _do_ know how to land, right?"

She breathed out; she didn't recall Leafa teaching him that, and she certainly hadn't taught him how to safely touch down at high speeds either!

"...no, not really!"

"Ah, I- gah, oh crap. Too late now" she said, before, sheepish: "You're on your own!"

She braced herself inside his pocket.

"Wait, WHAT!? YOU'RE KIDDING MEEEEEE!"

_Crash_

After the many, many knocks and metaphorical bruises from the process, she finally became aware that her daddy had stopped falling - now he was flat on his back. His health was damaged, but otherwise, he was fairly fine. Other than never wanting that to happen again, she was just relieved; in ALO, no matter how fast you were going, the system set a limit on how much damage collisions could cause (in this case, 25%). And eventually, she became aware of Leafa in front of him, and her daddy slowly regaining his senses.

"That was so. not. cool!" he breathed weakly.

_"Well maybe you shouldn't have flirted with her daddy!"_ she thought, thinking it served him right, least for the moment.

"Don't worry; I can heal you. _Sū firra heiru ausutoru_"

She and daddy both reacted in surprise at this; he at the fact she was using magic, which he must not be accustomed to. Her though, she was surprised; Sylphs weren't usually known for their healing magic - and at the same time, she looked up what it meant. Basically it read in english: _Heal thou, healing water_. Appropriate if a little redundant, but she noted a difference somewhere along the way... the official wording and actual pronunciation were different from the incantation runes hovering around Leafa (Those read: _Þú fylla heill austr_). They apparently meant the exact same thing, and had the same effect, but what was up with the wording? Were the words switched around, mixed together, hit a snag on updating the language, or what?

Hmm, more study would be needed on that front. Still, she was glad that Leafa knew healing magic; now she didn't have to worry too much about her daddy's injuries, in comparison to SAO.

After that, the three of them had gone to an inn, to get that drink to repay her daddy. They'd also run into a friend of Leafa's, named Recon, who apparently was a good friend and a classmate of hers, even outside of this game. Her daddy joked that it might be more, which been angrily-embarrassingly shrugged off by Leafa - she was curious, but for right now, couldn't tell if she liked him more than friends, or if he was just a close friend. But she didn't know Leafa that well yet, either, so she simply ate more of her cracker.

Then Leafa and her daddy talked of many things, including recent events, more about this world and it's politics between the races (including the Grant Quest), and other such things. She listened to all of it of course, but for the most part, she was quiet and ate this yummy food - though she did find the ability to fly as high/as long as she wanted appealing. No wonder so many players wanted to clear the World Tree, hee hee... still, the mention of the NPC's who guarded the base of the tree worried her. Leafa said they were super-powerful, but what stats she could currently see didn't reflect such strength.

Hmm... maybe it wasn't purely strength she was referring to.

"But I _can't_ wait around that long!"

His outburst startled Leafa, and her, but she was sad after the shock wore off; she knew who he was thinking of, and she flew to his shoulder. "Daddy?" she breathed, trying to comfort him.

He breathed out. "Sorry, it's just that- I have to get to the top of the World Tree as soon as I can."

"...okay, what's the rush?"

"I'm sort of- looking for someone."

"What do you mean?"

He slowly looked down. "No offense, but... it's hard to explain" he breathed.

She made a sad sound, moving herself closer to her daddy, trying to help comfort him; she missed mommy too. And because of this, she missed how the seriousness of his wanting to get there affected Leafa.

Still, her daddy got better, looking up and thanking Leafa for her help. Together, he moved to leave... before Leafa grabbed his arm.

"Wait, are you heading for the World Tree _right now?_"

"Uh-huh; I need to see it for myself."

Even as Leafa continued to talk after a moment, he firmly pulled his arm out of her grip, walking away: "Alone? That's crazy. It's really far away, and- you'll have to fit a bunch of monsters. I know you can handle yourself, but..."

She was a little sad, not wanting to say goodbye to a possibly good friend.

"Hey, if you want, I can take you there!"

Her daddy paused at the door, both of them surprised. "Thanks, but we just met, and it wouldn't feel right" her daddy said, usually the nice guy, which she liked.

"Right, then maybe you already know how to get there" she said, coming closer (he had no answer). "Whatcha gonna do about the Guardians?"

"Well - I'll think of something when I get there" he grumbled, just a little.

"Too late! My mind's made up!"

Really surprised now, she wondered why Leafa was doing this for them - and her daddy was just as surprised, and exasperated. "...okay."

So they were agreed, meeting up tomorrow, and her daddy thanked Leafa before she logged out.

/

It wasn't too long after that her daddy went to bed - he didn't go to sleep right away because the light was still on; he just lay there, thinking about other things. And as she flew near him, she wondered if it was possible to revert back to her SAO form. Maybe this body was easier to handle, and could fly, but still nothing could beat the sheer sensation of hugging her daddy close. So she quickly checked her data, and found it possible; she just had to focus like she'd done while transforming into a pixie.

She tried it, flipping over in the process.

Within moments, she landed on the floor with her human-sized feet, and wearing the white dress that she usually did. Her daddy looked around in time to see the end of this change.

She held her hands behind her back, smiling. "I guess this means goodbye till tomorrow, doesn't it" she breathed gently.

He smiled back, in that little soft way he did. "Yeah, but I'll be back soon" he assured gently, hands behind his head on the pillows. "It won't be that long."

This made her happy, before she got nervous. "Daddy?" she whispered, fingers fidgeting a bit behind her back. "Would it be okay if I slept next to you? Just until you logged out..."

Maybe she shouldn't have asked; she didn't want him to think this was weird or anything!

But his reaction was, if anything, a surprised happy. "Yeah, sure; I don't mind."

She brightened, and eagerly got onto the bed, moving herself under the covers! Even as she finished, facing her daddy, the inn's lighting source turned itself off.

He saw this, but he kept his eyes on her, smiling more. "You and me, we're gonna save Asuna" he assured softly. "Then we'll all go buy a house somewhere again."

"That would make me so happy" she admitted, the feeling warming her heart; she loved this family. "You know, living with you and mommy again would be a dream come true!"

He placed a hand on her shoulder, to her slight surprise (and warmth). "It's not a dream" he said, very gentle. "I promise you, I'm gonna make it a reality."

She felt even warmer, and nodded at that - but soon she saw her dad beginning to nod off, his eyes closing.

It didn't affect her happiness one bit, and in those few seconds before he disappeared, she snuggled herself very close to him.

"Goodnight, Daddy."

/

When her daddy logged back in, her program began to shift back from 'sleep mode' (where she'd been processing various information in the databases) back to active mode. As a result, she found herself sleepy, inexplicably back in her daddy's shirt pocket and (obviously) back in her pixie form. And the amount of effort it took to shake herself out of her sleepy state, including a long yawn, was far more than she thought it would be.

If daddy's contaminated her with his sleeping habits, he's in big trouble!

She also heard her daddy and Leafa talking - something about gear and if he had enough money.

"Hey, Yui? Wake up, we're heading out."

She slowly popped out, still a little sleepy and letting out another yawn "O-aaah-kay" she breathed.

/

Gear-shopping went well, though because of daddy's limited money, he couldn't get anything too good. But any upgrade was better than no upgrade, hee hee.

Leafa had also been nice enough to give him a quick overview of the town and it's places, ending with his tower, which was a perfect launching point for flying - as she explained, the higher you start from, the better you are when flying long distances. However, their trip to the top had almost resulted in a violent incident... some man by the name of Sigurd had not been happy with Leafa leaving the Sylphs, even if it was temporary.

Why must some people be mean like that?

When they got to the top though, she agreed with her daddy and Leafa; the view was amazing! Then they'd talked about why Sigurd had come to her; apparently, fairies of any race who who did not belong to their home race were looked down upon, and this made her sad.

"You humans are so complicated" she'd said to them, flying out of her daddy's pocket, and landing on his shoulder. "Honestly your psychology is confusing; why do you act so formally to each other when all you want is companionship?"

"What do you mean?" Leafa asked.

"If it were me-" she said cheerfully, kissing her daddy's cheek with no hesitation (he was a little surprised). "I'd do that! It's simple, straightforward, and efficient!"

"Uh..." she breathed, as if not sure what to say. "Wow, that's an amazing AI. Do all private pixies act like yours?"

"No, just mine" he said with a weird tone, before he picked her up by the wings (she squeaked). "But then again, she's a weird one."

She squirmed and squeaked the entire way, even as her daddy harmlessly stuffed her back into his pocket. Inside, she was pouting the entire time; SHE was the weird one!? Look who's talking daddy! Even if you are being playful!

"Well, I guess you would know..."

However, they were soon interrupted by Recon, who wished to say goodbye. He'd offered to come with them after asking why she'd left, before saying that his sword (more of a dagger, actually) was hers and hers alone. Inside, she tilted her head; she was sure that phrase was another metaphor or something, but for what? Still, though he wanted to go, something had been bugging him - but it involved him being with Sigurd awhile longer. Then he'd asked her daddy to help make sure she didn't get into trouble...

And she made a sound. Leafa was Recon's what? And why had she stomped his foot to prevent him from saying it?

Either way, she couldn't get an answer just yet, so they flew off.

"Let me get this straight; in real life, he's your friend?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"Mmh-hmmm."

"Okay, what is _that_ supposed to mean!?"

"Nothing" he called playfully. "Just a little jealous is all."

She giggled a bit. "Now that person's feelings I can understand" she said, referring to Recon. "He must like you a lot, wouldn't you say, Leafa? Do you feel the same way about him?"

Leafa made a sort-of shocked noise, then: "I-I don't know! Geez!" she said in a huff, flying faster. Confused, she looked up at her daddy, who merely gave her a smiling shrug.

Still, they made good time, and in the process, her daddy was really getting the hang of aerial combat. Some people might think being the master of flight meant you were good in aerial combat, but it wasn't remotely the case. And she'd seen Leafa casting more magic, which she noted and compared against the database again - so far no conclusions could be drawn, but she wasn't discouraged. But after awhile, their wings had started giving that shimmering warning, that they were about to run out of flight-time. So they decided to rest them, rotating out their log-ins while the other guarded them.

Leafa was first, and her daddy dug in into his pockets, where to her curiosity he pulled out a bunch of colored stick things. However, closer observation revealed them to be candy, rather than wood.

"What are those daddy?" she asked, sitting on his shoulder.

"No idea" he admitted. "But the NPC I bought them from said they couldn't be gotten anywhere else, and I thought we might need a snack or two" he continued, before smiling at her. "Wanna try one?"

"Sure!"

So he'd given her one, which while a little weighty due to her size, she could still hold up. After nibbling it, testing it's hardness, she concluded that it must be sucked on - so she did.

"Mmh! Ah! Ah! Ah!"

It was like her mouth had been on fire!

"Yui?" he breathed, both worried and bemused by the fact that was literally coughing up steam. "Too spicy?"

"Spicy!?" she pouted, looking at him crossly. "It's spiciness is just _perfect_, _thank you_ daddy! But because I'm a pixie, all of the spicy concentrations went straight into my small taste buds, intensifying it by ten times!"

He merely hummed at this, then smiled. "So if you sucked on one in your regular state, I'm sure you'd like it" he said mildly, subconsciously sucking on his further. She merely continued to pout at him, but he chuckled at this, so she went back into his pocket in a small huff.

She softened up at him overtime, of course, but it took until a little after Leafa came back and relieved her daddy. She could feel his heartrate slowing, and he was essentially asleep, but only logged out. She could have taken the time to go into sleep mode and compile more data, but with her daddy coming back so soon, what was the point? So instead, she came out of his pocket, smiling a bit.

And she was confused by Leafa's sudden shock at this, so she flew up to her daddy's shoulder.

"No way! You can move when your master's logged out!?"

"Well of course I can move" she said mildly, hands on her hips. "You know, I'm my own person! And for your information, he's not my master; he's my daddy!"

She could feel the confusion from here even without her emotion senses. "Yeah, about that" Leafa said slowly. "I was gonna ask you before; why do you call him your daddy? Did he, you know, 'set' you that way or something?"

A brief moment of surprise, but she smiled. "He didn't do anything to my settings; he saved me" she said softly, feeling warmth at the memories. "He told me I was his daughter, and that makes him my daddy! See how that works?"

"I guess... do you, you know, like him?"

She blinked, a little unsure; especially because Leafa's emotions were telling her different things right now. "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean by 'like'" she breathed, tilting her head.

Her answer definitely seemed to embarrass Leafa: "Uh... are you serious? Well it means that you wanna be with him all the time... and when you're together, you get excited about being near him... GAH!"

"What's wrong, Leafa?" she asked, worried; why had her face suddenly turned red.

"Nothing! It's nothing!"

"What's nothing?" her daddy asked, to Leafa's complete shock that he was suddenly back - she wasn't though, having felt his character come back to life, so to speak. "What's going on? What is it? Is something wrong?"

"Welcome back, daddy" she said gently. "Leafa was just telling me what it means when someone says they li-"

"Nooo!" Leafa freaked out, her hands flailing. "I said it's nothing! Nothing! A-And you weren't there for very long..."

Even as her daddy answered that, she slowly crossed her arms, just plain confused. Humans really were complicated, with all these things they deny, cover-up, or otherwise go to great lengths to change even the smallest detail... mmh.

Still, Leafa and her daddy were set to get going - though her daddy did get a feeling that something was there. But when he asked her about that, she answered that no, she wasn't sensing any players nearby; it was just the three of them out here. However, Leafa's mention of a Tracer made her worried - according to the data, these could not be detected on maps, only by sight. And if the players couldn't see them on maps, what chance did she have? Still, she was determined to continuously monitor the Area Maps, just in case.

Because she shared her daddy's instinct that something might be following them.

* * *

**Copy+Paste sure comes in handy... but if anyone's confused, the two different wordings of spells is based on translation hiccups. Basically, the anime used the translated-at-the-time versions, which are close but slightly off, while recently there's a guidebook on the properly complete translation/pronunciation of ALO's magic words/runes/such. It's nothing incredibly different (mostly a few words here and there when you compare the two), but I think it'd made an amusing anecdote that Yui would be interested in lol**

**So yeah, based only on pronunciation from the anime, I've just made it more complicated :P Hopefully you can just go with it lol**


	7. Fights

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_ALO_

_Underground Cavern_

Hee hee, her daddy was starting to get his basics on magic, whether it was lighting up the dark or reciting the words for an illusion magic spell (_Seā urāza nōto diputo, ren herubegūru / __Þeír hræða nótt dýpt, renn helvegr_ - these runes were still not lining up consistently!), called Metamorphosis, and the words themselves speaking _"Frighten them, depth of the night, and chase them along the roads of Hell"_. According to the description, whatever creature this would turn the caster into would be random, yet based upon the user's stats - so lower meant weaker. Thanks to this, most people didn't use it at all, because of that inherent problem, and probably another reason why the Spriggran race was so underused.

Still, through his past experience with SAO before the conversion, her daddy's stats were really high right off the bat. She couldn't wait to see what he'd turn into!

Oh, and she giggled at her daddy being grumpy over Leafa's diss.

But then she got a message from her friend Recon, but it had only said that he was right, and for them to be careful, then something with an S. However, just as her daddy reacted to Leafa's reactions about that last part, she popped up: "Daddy, I'm picking up movement behind us!"

"Are they monsters?" he asked instantly, all business.

She shook her head vigorously. "No, they're players! A lot- twelve total!"

In response, Leafa had them take cover, having a bad feeling about this - still, using her magic, she created a sort-of barrier in front of the gap of rock they were standing in. It shimmered when her daddy touched it, and they had to be quiet, because anything loud would break the spell.

"They'll be coming into view soon" she whispered as well, wanting to keep them updated.

Then her daddy mentioned seeing something, with red eyes, like a bat... and then Leafa broke their cover! Instantly working, she used Wind magic to shoot down the high-level Tracer, and she succeeded! Yay!

Still, the Tracer had them pegged; hiding wasn't gonna do them any good. So they ran - still in her daddy's pocket, she was worried, but did her job and kept her eyes on the map. But despite how fast they were going, the twelve Salamander soldiers were managing to keep up with them at the very least! Still, thanks to the map, she indirectly saw it when they crossed out of the caves, and onto this bridge that connected to a neutral city above the water. And she was worried; that lake was filled with high-level monters that only the Undine race could battle effectively.

Then she was slammed against the fabric as her daddy hit something, and was effortlessly reflected by it. When she got out to see what was going on, she found themselves blockaded by an Earth magic barrier, which couldn't be destroyed by standard means. And swimming through the lake was out, as Leafa said... so, they prepared to fight.

She made a little sound, seeing three shield users at the fore, and nine casters at the rear (judging by their equipment).

Her daddy charged this defensive line, but they locked shields together and tanked the blast - it shared the damage through all three of them. Then she breathed out in alarm as a few of the casters healed the defensive line, while the others continued to cast something else entirely. Then fireballs rained over the defensive line-

"Daddy!" she cried out, jolting as she herself bounced around in his pocket, and saw his health was now hovering at 40%! Leafa's magic soon healed him up to 90%, and he took the opportunity to pound at the defensive line again.

But she was worried; their casters were quite powerful, and their strategy was firm; this would be a losing battle one way or the other!

Her daddy was blasted by the fireballs again, and when she landed, she shook herself out of her daze; something had to be done. "Daddy!" she said urgently, knowing that he would fight anyway, and sought to use it. "Prepare to use your magic when Leafa protects you!"

A moment, then: "Yeah, sure - you got it."

"That's enough, Kirito! If we lose it'll just mean another couple extra hours of flying! Let's give up while we can!"

Half out of her daddy's pocket, she knew the answer even before he said it... she knew of his previous experiences.

"No way" he breathed low with conviction, shocking Leafa. "As long as I'm alive I won't let anyone in my party die. _I won't let that happen again!_"

Even as Leafa breathed out at this, daddy merely turned to face the defensive line again - and she fully got out of his pocket, touching his cheek before she flew off.

_"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"_

Daddy's roar burned with an angry intensity she heard only in battle, and even then not usually this strong - it even startled the defensive line, especially when he charged straight at them. With pure determination, he reached and physically began to pry their locked shields apart, trying to drive a wedge that he could stab his sword through.

But she knew it wouldn't be enough; he didn't have the time or the health, and so she flew right up to Leafa's shoulder. "Hurry, this is your only chance!" she breathed, to Leafa's surprise ("What do you mean?"), but this was no time for that! "You have to use all the mana you have! Hurry and focus on shielding him from the next magic attack!"

"Uh... okay, but I don't think it's gonna work..." she breathed, unsure.

She didn't look away from Leafa's eyes, even as she realized that casters were preparing for another round, was further unsure as they stared at each other... then she slowly smiled. _"Sū sharu rindo ashīnya, bāto eimi ōgu suverudo! / __Þú sér lind ásynja, burt eimi og sverð!_ ("Wrap him in a shield of the goddesses, and keep away flames and irons!") she casted.

With a rush of air, countless butterflies formed a circling pattern and moved over her daddy, casting a light-blue shield over him - just in time for the fireballs.

Leafa grunted with effort; the spell also caused any feedback the target would feel so that she would feel it instead. "Do it now, daddy!" she called out to him, even as her hair and dress whipped from the impact, and surprising Leafa. She could only assume he heard her, because he raised his sword high and began speaking the spell he'd been reciting earlier before the Tracer, the magic runes of the language appearing around him, and being fulfilled. Leafa stood up a bit, realizing what he was doing and having her own thoughts - but she was just plain excited! Go daddy go! Use that magic and be awesome!

Leafa's magic ran out, but at the exact same time, the dispersement and her daddy's magic combined to create a sort of fire tornado. She was just as surprised as Leafa was!

However, inside the fire, a large dark shape began to form... and then the fire slowly died around it.

She breathed out, surprised; it was the Gleam Eyes Boss! It's coloring was off, it was missing it's massive sword, and it's eyes glowed red instead of blue, but it was still unmistakably that creature!

Demonic laughter filtered through the air, Kirito!Gleam Eyes opening his mouth, breathing fire once.

"I-Is that... Kirito?"

Her daddy roared with such force, it created a low-level air shockwave, scaring one soldier out of formation! He instantly took advantage of that, running forward with surprising speed for such a large creature (to the unprepared), and he speared that same soldier through his claws. The other two soldiers began to panic with him so close, while their commander yelled at them that it wasn't real... it didn't save them, because her daddy literally chomped down on another, and flung the other through the air before slamming him into the ground.

She giggled a little; this was so cool, and her daddy was feeling pumped!

The commander tried to regain control, having them cast a different spell, but her daddy saw this a mile away (almost literally). With the same fast speed, he crossed half the bridge in seconds, jumping up into the air above the rapidly-becoming-scared casters... then he tail-swiped two of them in one move.

"Yay!" she cheered for him.

Then he slammed his claw into the ground, the force defeating two others, then got down and roared in their faces. At this point, they tried to retreat, but her daddy wouldn't let them go that easily! Jumping into the air, he cut off their escape route, and with the same ferocity he possessed as a human, sliced through three more of the casters. The commander promptly panicked and jumped into the lake, only to be taken care of by the aquatic monsters - then, her daddy picked up the last caster, growling down at him.

"Huh! Wait Kirito!" Leafa yelled, running forward (she quickly adjusted on her shoulder). "Hold on! Don't kill him!"

For a moment, her daddy didn't reply, but with a growl he still dropped the soldier.

"Isn't my daddy amazing?" she asked, giggling with happiness; that had been so awesome!

Still, she watched as Leafa threatened the remaining caster, but he wouldn't talk. She felt she was just about to kill him when-

"_Oohoh man!_ Now _that_ was cool!"

Striding out of the smoke, she was glad to see her daddy human again, even if it was with the crazy hairstyle and pointed ears. "That was an awesome fight!" he breathed, now down in front of the soldier (who was heavily surprised). "Your plan wasn't shabby either; if I was alone I wouldn't have lasted a minute against you dorks!"

"W-What are you telling him that for!?" Leafa demanded, flabbergasted.

"Let me handle this" he said mildly, before showing the caster his screen. "Listen up; I want to see if you and me can make a deal. Check it out, those are the items and money I won after beating your asses. All you have to do is answer my questions and they could be yours; what do you say?"

The caster was heavily shocked, glancing around between them as if it might be a joke. "...seriously?" he asked.

"Totally" her daddy said, all too cheerful.

Then after a moment, both of them began chuckling over something or another - from her place on Leafa's shoulders, she merely sighed, arms crossed.

"Ugh, _men_" Leafa breathed, a bit disgusted.

"It's like they forgot we're even here" she agreed, exasperated on the inside.

/

Oh sure, she had been all happy to remind daddy what had happened during this last battle, that he had eaten one of the soldiers... then he had to go and do that! So even as Leafa wondered at the amazing city of Lagure, she was still pouting on her shoulder.

"_Owww_, that hurt."

"Then you shouldn't be biting people!" she told him, cross.

"I'll say" Leafa agreed.

"Why's everyone ganging up on me?" he wondered, sorta grumpy, the hand print on his face still fresh. "I was trying to break the tension with a stupid joke, is all."

She hmph'ed, even as Leafa continued to glance at her daddy. "Bite me again and I'll cut you in half" she said to him, in a low voice that had no hesitation in doing so.

That put her daddy in his place, mmh hm! Oh but don't get the wrong idea, she wasn't _really_ mad at him; his playful jokes just went over the line sometimes. It's an occupational hazard when you're around a daddy with an impossible mindset.

Still, her daddy did remind Leafa that she'd gotten a message from her friend, something that she'd completely forgotten about.

"Well, why don't you log out and give him a call?"

"Hmm" Leafa breathed, before nodding. "Yeah, I think I'd better check in with him. I'll only be gone a sec; wait here for me" she continued, before looking straight at her. "Yui, would you mind looking after my avatar while I'm out."

She was thoroughly surprised. "Me?"

Leafa gave her a look she understood well. "Yeah, I need to make sure your 'dad' doesn't mess around with it while I'm out" she said mildly.

"Copy that, ma'am!" she said cheerfully, saluting, honored that she trusted her to do something like this-

"You've gotta be kidding..." her daddy breathed low, his face blank.

-even if it was a bit exaggerated.

Still, she did her job, looking over Leafa's merely 'unconscious' body, even as her daddy bought another snack from a nearby vendor. "Honestly" she breathed, both at him doing that for the second time today, and his earlier 'joke' - hmm, but now it was out of her system. So when he sat down beside Leafa, he did it with a glance toward her, shrugging a bit but with a smile. She smiled back, glad that he didn't feel defensive or angry about her little 'cross' temper... wait, could it be called a temper? Mmh, technically she didn't think so, but she was still learning after all...

Just as her daddy was about to bite into his snack, Leafa suddenly awoke and shot up. "We have to hurry!"

"Uh, hey, welcome back, Leafa" he said mildly, even as she said so as well.

Then she was surprised/saddened by the fact that she had to leave, for something important, and she didn't explain because she didn't want them to be involved... however, daddy made that impossible, as usual. So, herself back in his pocket, they ran off because the town prevented use of wings, and they both got the full story.

Soon, very soon, there was to be a meeting between the leaders of the Sylphs and the Cat Sith, where they were about to propose an alliance, as a part of attempting a raid on the World Tree. However, the traitor Sigurd had tipped off the Salamanders about this... and they had an army on the way. If they got there, things would get ugly real fast.

She was worried about all this, and she didn't know how it was gonna turn out. But she knew one thing for now; at the very least, getting to the meeting place was another step closer to the World Tree itself. To save mommy!

* * *

**That was always a favorite moment of mine, least in the ALO arc :) Not just for the cool Kirito!Gleam Eyes moment, but the biting humor that came with it lol**


	8. Closeness

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_ALO_

_Approaching Sylph/Cat Sith meeting_

_"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"_

She slowly giggled a bit in her daddy's pocket; poor Leafa getting dragged along by her daddy, something she could understand. She kinda liked the speed though, because it gave her a sense of her daddy's power; it was the effort and exhaustion from keeping up in flight that she took issue with. Here in his pocket, she didn't have to do a thing except guide them in the right direction once they were flying!

"There's the exit!"

Leafa just continued screaming, and through his sheer speed, they went straight over a cliff and into the air - normally, this would be a problem, but for humans with wings?

"...Grr, are you _trying_ to kill me!?"

"Nah, just trying to save us some time!"

"You and your shortcuts..."

Still in his pocket, she just giggled - and once they figured out the location, they increased their flight speed. She didn't want the races to go to war with each other, but she knew her daddy would do everything he could to stop that. Still, even as they got closer and closer, it became more clear that they were fighting (and slightly losing) against the clock.

She jolted. "I've got player readings!" she said intently. "Sixty-eight of them, flying in formation! From what I can tell, it might be the Salamander attack squad!"

Her daddy and Leafa tensed, then the clouds parted, and- there! High in the sky they were, they looked like ants from this height, tiny little flying red ants against the green forest.

She pointed quickly. "There are fourteen more players on the plateau!" she said, certain they were the Sylph and Cat Sith delegations, and she said so. "They'll make contact in fifty seconds!"

And by her system calculations, they'd still be about twenty seconds behind that...

Clearly Leafa knew that too, at least in general the way that she sighed. She thanked her daddy for trying, and that she'd do everything she could, but he should head for the World Tree instead of worrying about this.

She made a sound, feeling the way her daddy's heartbeat starting to slow - the way it had during the past anticipation of battles.

"Sorry, but running away from a fight's not really my style."

Leafa had no idea how to respond to that.

/

His landing went much better during this last one, at least - inside his shirt pocket, she held her hands together, hoping her daddy, Leafa, and all the delegates/warriors out there could come to some sort of peace.

"Salamanders! Stand down!"

They were all unsure of what to make of that, and that included the delegate leaders, Sakuya and Alicia - but at least they had Leafa (trying) to explain things.

"I wanna talk to your commander!" her daddy continued.

At first, nothing but more shock and confusion, but then the ranks parted as a single man made his way through - she saw all this as dots on the map, but it still gave the same impression. Her daddy tensed a bit, then flew up to meet the commander face-to-face. And as they talked, her impression of the Salamander commander, Eugene, was a serious opponent but a reasonable one. Still, he was right to have a healthy skepticism for her daddy's claim - which though fairly sound, was a bit outrageous because they had no proof at all. In the end, only a fight would determine his final judgement, and she was saddened by that but determined.

She quickly scanned his character - hmm, he was covered in ultra-rare Blood Armour... and he wielded the Demonic Sword Gram! That was the second most powerful sword in the game, behind Excalibur! To even wield it, you needed a Two-Handed skill of 950, and it's unique Ethereal Shift ability would allow it to phase through most weapons!

By the time she was done, her daddy and Eugene were still staring at each other... she wanted to warm him about the sword, but if she said anything, he'd be distracted. Any such distraction would allow the commander the advantage...

Then her daddy flinched a bit, and the battle began - her daddy tried to block despite the initial glare, but Eugene's sword went right through his and sent him into a mountain!

"Oww" she breathed to herself, heavily jolted from the impact before seeing something weird flash in regards to the Commander's weapon.

Time remaining: nine seconds. Then it was eight.

She breathed out; it had a cooldown! If her daddy could somehow use that in battle, he'd gain the upper hand!

The battle continued even as she realized it, more even this time, but still had a disadvantage thanks to the Demonic Sword Gram. Even her daddy admitted that he was good, but still, Eugene was intent on killing him - she saw that peculiar human emotion that meant they enjoyed fighting strong opponents. Still, her daddy kept up the pressure, forcing Eugene on the defensive; he couldn't use the sword's ability unless he was attacking. But it still wasn't quite enough, as he scored several hits and his health was dropping!

"Daddy, get away!" she said, having an idea.

He was surprised, but he still obeyed, and Eugene closed in.

"Buy yourself some time!" she said to him. "The Commander's weapon has a cooldown, so borrow Leafa's sword!"

He was utterly surprised... then he made a cross between a chuckle and a grin, which she could tell even from inside his pocket; he knew what she was referring to. And she saw his mana deplete as he used his magic, creating an aerial smokescreen that Eugene couldn't avoid - then he moved quickly back to the plateau, which was also covered by the smoke.

"I need to borrow this for a sec" her daddy said to Leafa, even though she couldn't possibly see him.

_"Sorry Leafa!"_ she thought, sorry that she had to shock and embarrass her like that!

When Eugene finally cleared the smoke, he quickly looked around for her daddy, but he was nowhere to be found... not from down there anyway, hehe. When he did finally spot them, her daddy increased his speed, his determination in perfect sync with his desires - and the sun behind him didn't make it easier for the Commander! Roaring, he went straight at Eugene, who swung his sword right through her daddy's... only to be deflected by Leafa's sword, to his complete and utter shock!

Yeah, you don't mess with her daddy while he's dual-wielding!

Her daddy attacked Eugune with a ferocity only he could manage, slicing and dicing as fast as he could - maybe the equipment weren't the best, but his stats more than made up for it! Eugene screamed at the assault, and her daddy's latest strike collided against some fire shield, which exploded! Eugene tried to attack again, but this time her daddy just sidestepped it entirely and speared him through the middle! Still Eugene was kicking, grabbing her daddy's face and attempting to crush him or something!

But her daddy would not submit; he sliced Eugene in half, right down the middle!

She cheered that her daddy had won!

...but why did defeat always end in explosions here? And for that matter, in video games in general?

/

Still, when they brought Eugene back by a resurrection spell, there had been no hard feelings at all - which she was glad for. Much as her daddy fighting was awesome, she preferred peace and happiness, much like her daddy did at heart.

Still, she agreed with Leafa; he really was an insane guy!

Then her daddy and Leafa had talked with Sakuya and Alicia, about how they knew that the Salamanders had been about to attack them, and why. The reasons were complicated, and apparently involved the upcoming update, but the end result was that the traitor Sigurd had been banished from the Sylphs. No longer could he enter the race's cities, and he would be marked as a renegade for any bounty hunters who were interested. If he lived, he could still become part of the Salamanders thanks to the reincarnation system in the update, but that was if he survived.

Either way, she was sorta glad that things were going well now. Then of course, came the thanks to Leafa and her daddy-

"Hey handsome, about this Spriggan-Undine ambassador business; you aren't, are you."

She made a sound, outraged and pouting, even as her daddy blinked in surprise - luckily for him he reacted more to the question itself than the flirting: "Yeah that was a big fat lie" he said all-too cheerfully. "I was bluffing, conning, you know, negotiating!"

His answer shocked everyone else, even Alicia, who'd asked it in the first place (though that might have been his cheerfulness). "Oh god, you must be insane; you have to be make all that stuff up at the last minute" Sakuya breathed.

"Yeah, but it worked didn't it? Whenever I'm dealt a bad hand, I always raise the pot."

Yup, that was her daddy... then she made a noise as Alicia got closer, really close. "You know, for a Big Fat Liar, you're pretty freaking strong, handsome" she said to him, now on his side. "You're like the NVP of Spriggans! Are you their secret weapon?"

He was surprised, but not really alarmed (or even really saw it as bad, she noted with a pout). "Nah of course not" he said easily. "All I am is your Friendly Neighborhood Mercenary."

Alicia cracked up at that reference - whatever it was - then to her outrage, pulled his arm REALLY close to her body! Her daddy barely kept himself from freaking out, and his heart-rate went way up, but she didn't really care about all that right now! Little did she realize that her reactions were much the same as Leafa's.

"I like the wandering type" she breathed playfully, even as her daddy shook a little, making sounds. "Have you ever thought of being a merc for the Cat Sith? You get three meals a day plus snacks and a nap."

"So, Kirito-"

Okay this was just going too far!

"-I was thinking, maybe we could get to know each other a little better. I know a cute little pub in Swilvane; my treat."

Really, he was in big trouble for this! He was shaking and a nervous wreck on the inside, but he showed no ability to push them away! She felt slightly better when the two women began to argue with each other ("Oh come on Sakuya, that's not fair! You're totally _seducing_ him with those things!" - "_I'm_ seducing him? If you were any closer to him, he'd be _wearing_ you!"), and then really grateful to Leafa when she told them to chill out! Still, there had something strange about how Leafa's tone changed when she trailed off.

Still, her daddy had said that while he appreciated their offers ("Hmph!"), he wanted to get to the World Tree as soon as possible. And as it turned out, they could have gone together, her daddy and Leafa with the two combined races to raid the tree - however, there was an issue of equipment and money that needed solving. Her daddy had generously given them 100k of the currency, but it'd still take time to get ready, so for now, they were heading out on their own.

But at least Leafa could return to Sylph territory some day! That was something!

Speaking of Leafa though, just after she breathed that he couldn't believe her daddy had pulled that, she leaned against him-

"Oh honestly" she breathed, cross again. "I _thought_ I told you no more flirting, daddy!"

"What? I wasn't flirting!" her argued when she flew in front of him.

"When those girls were clinging to you, I noticed that your heart rate increased!"

"I'm a _guy_; that's what happens when girls get too close to me!"

"Seriously..." she pouted, still cross at him.

"W-What about me, I mean, I'm a girl - isn't that a problem?"

"No, you seem pretty safe to me, Leafa" she told her gently.

"What do you mean 'safe'!?"

She hummed, at the same time her daddy did so as well. "I think what she means is that, most of the time you don't seem like a girl" he said mildly.

"Okay, _woah_... _say that again! I **dare** you!_"

She merely giggled from her shoulder spot as her daddy tried to explain; luckily for him he managed to escape retribution. But getting himself into awkward situations served him right sometimes.

/

_ALO_

_Arun_

This city was really pretty; shame their first visit had been interrupted by maintenance. But their next good morning had been a funny one, where she explained to Leafa what she did while their avatars slept - and prompting her daddy to say 'Please keep the weird trivia to yourself' when she'd said his yawns usually lasted for eight seconds. Then when they got outside, she found it crowded, and to her surprise, there seemed to be no restrictions on what races could be here.

"It's like fairy races the world over are here" she'd wondered out loud, happy. "Look how they're all getting along!"

Her daddy and Leafa could only agree, but they still stopped at the sight they beheld; the tallest point of Arun, which led directly to the base of the World Tree itself. Even if you looked up, it seemed to go on endlessly past the clouds.

"We're finally here... the World Tree" her daddy breathed.

"Yeah, and it looks even more amazing from here" Leafa agreed.

And so they talked about what was up there, including the reported floating city, where Oberon the Fairy King lived, along with the Alf fairy race. Her daddy wondered if anyone had ever tried climbing the tree, but everything past the perimeter was off-limits, and even if you flew straight up, the flight limit would expire before you got close. However, five players had managed to get halfway up by 'piggybacking' on each other, the one on the bottom flying for the limit before the next one on the bottom would take their place. But it still only got up to the lowest branches... and the GM(s) had apparently deemed it a breach of the world's rules, so it couldn't be done anymore.

Hmm, an invisible barrier above the clouds, to keep them from flying too high. If they ever got the ability to fly endlessly, that was gonna be a huge problem.

Still, the trip to the base of the trunk was fun, and she talked with her daddy and Leafa a lot as well.

"Once we pass through that gate, we're in the World's Heart" Leafa said to her, just as they approached the gate in question. They passed just under it-

She gasped, snapping out of his pocket without thinking!

"What, Yui? Is something wrong?" her daddy asked.

"Mommy" she breathed, shaking.

His breath hitched.

"It's mommy! She's here!" she said intently, doing another scan; it was her!

"Are you sure!?"

"Yes, I'm positive! I scanned again, and it's mommy's player ID! Her coordinates are above us in the tree!" she said, pointing directly above them. Her daddy looked up instantly, breathing out, then his teeth gritted together... in a matter of seconds, he was airborne.

Go daddy go!

"Kirito! Wait! Kirito!"

Her daddy gave no indication that he heard. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open as the wind stung at them, due to his speed, but it was worth it! If only he could go faster!

"...watch out, Kirito! You're gonna hit the barrier!"

By the time she realized he was going to, it was too late; he slammed into it. The force rippled across the invisible wall, and the result slammed daddy and herself away, she flailing a bit out of his pocket. When she got her bearings back, she saw that her daddy had recovered faster, and was charging again at the barrier (Leafa cried out "No!"), and was thrown back again. He tried to again, even as she flew up desperately, and she heard their arguing words but only daddy's got through clearly ("I have to! Damn it, I have to try!). The barrier shimmered against her touch, but no matter how hard she pressed, it would not give.

"Mommy! I'm here, mommy!" she cried out, desperate and her eyes getting wet, even as she trembled. _"Mommmmmmy!"_

Her daddy continued to pound against the barrier beside her, all his desperation, anger and determination at their peaks, and using her distress to fuel them even more. But there must be something she could do to help!

She quickly scanned the system, looking across the data as fast as she could, particularly along communication lines...

Then she gasped; she could use the Warning Mode! If she used it for too long, the system would get suspicious, but anything less than fifteen seconds and she would still be safe!

"Uh, mommy!" she breathed, sad and weak, but still hopeful.

No answer.

"Mommy!" she breathed, really worried, but hoping her voice was still somehow reaching her! "Mommy! Mommy! I'm here!"

She was forced to pull out of Warning Mode before the system became suspicious, and saddened, she sat down dejected on Leafa's shoulder - and she could still feel her daddy trying to crack open the barrier.

"Gah! Why can't I bust through it!?"

"I used Warning Mode to contact her, but I don't know if it worked" she breathed, sad - her daddy heard her, but he was still frustrated, and she didn't know what to do! However, she slowly looked up when her daddy's emotions changed entirely; rage and frustration had given way to surprise, shock, and confusion.

_"Daddy?"_ she thought.

"What's that?"

She made a sound, slowly flying off Leafa's shoulders, especially when he caught something in his hands. "A card?" he wondered faintly. "Leafa, do you know what this thing does?"

She didn't, and when her daddy tried to pull up the info for the card, there was no reaction at all.

"Let's see" she breathed, wanting to give a try herself... then she gasped: "I got it! This is a System Admin Access Code!"

"Really!? Do you think we can access the GM's controls with this!?"

"No" she breathed, saddened to be saying it. "You need the right console to access it, and the only way to find it is through the system menu, but, even I can't bring that up! No one can!"

"I see..." her daddy breathed, very faint. "Although, I doubt something like this would just fall out of the sky" he continued, his grip tightening. "I wonder-"

She immediately saw where he was going. "Yes!" she cried out, looking at the card. "It's from mommy! She must have heard us and dropped it!"

As if they were of one mind, she and her daddy closed their eyes - mommy was connected to this card, her hand touching it along with them, even though she wasn't physically present.

_"We'll find you, mommy"_ she thought, absolutely determined. _"And we'll use this code to tear apart the system if we have to!"_

* * *

**And of course things start to get serious.**

**Btw, yes, Ethereal Shift did have a cooldown for anyone who didn't know or suspect that :P How much of a cooldown wasn't specified, but that wasn't required lol**


	9. Assault

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_ALO_

_Base of the World Tree_

Her daddy _had_ to give more warning when he took off!

Still, even as he flew: "A-Are you sure about this, daddy?" she breathed, worried. "I'm only asking because based on everything we've been told about the gate, breaking in sounds like it's going to be really hard."

"We don't have any other choice" he told her, still flying and eventually landing before a set of steps. "It's not like we'll die if we fail. And if I have to spend another minute doing nothing, I'm gonna lose my mind."

She made a sound, sad... then she jolted when his finger bumped her head, a little harder than was strictly necessary.

He wasn't looking at her, but he was smiling a little. "And I know you want to see mommy just as much as I do" he said gently.

"I do" she breathed, determined - and she perked up slightly when he rubbed against her cheek, then they continued onward.

The doors themselves blocked their way, voices asking if he was daring to enter the floating city, while officially asking if he wanted to start the Grand Quest. Her dad clicked yes with no hesitation, and the voices let him pass, the massive doors opening for them. Her daddy slowly gripped his sword, "Okay, here we go, Yui" he breathed. "Keep your head down, okay?"

"Okay" she breathed, worried, but having faith in him. "Good luck."

Even as she went back into his pocket, and her daddy drew his sword and walked past the open gates, she went over all the data that she had on the Guardians. Her daddy already knew all this from his off-inspection in the database, but still, she wanted to be sure that she hadn't missed something. Their strength and magic stats were about equal to a medium-equipped player, so their damage was considerable, but one-on-one they weren't a match for anyone who was prepared. Their speed was about average, but they had the ability of unlimited flight - which could be a problem. Only one thing still bothered her though; the stat for their spawn rate.

No matter when she looked at it, it always read a peculiarly-shaped eight. Even looking into records of past battles only gave her that number... though the pre-set number of Guardians had to be formidable, if anyone got past that, eight per minute or even second wouldn't present an unassailable obstacle. But even high-level raiding parties had failed against them.

Her daddy stopped in the middle of the circular room, flinching a bit when the lighting came on. Though the map was presented in merely two-dimensions, the height stat for the place was considerable, and subtle bits of code spoke that the walls weren't just smooth - it was more like they were pocketed with alcoves; the habitats for the pre-set Guardians, she was sure.

Daddy got into a ready stance, and his wings came out, then his heart-rate went into it's absolute lowest.

She held her hands together, preparing, hoping.

With a roar, her daddy sped straight up... then one alcove began to beep on her map data, and it discharged a single Guardian. Daddy instantly adjusted to this, his determination and impatience boiling over ("Get out of my waaaayy!") - they briefly engaged, then her daddy stabbed it through the throat and beheaded it, disregarding the explosion and flying up even higher. Then her map began to seriously freak on her, mostly due to readings that a two-dimensional map couldn't keep up with right away. She gasped when she saw what it all meant; every single alcove on the lower half had discharged a Guardian!

This briefly stopped her daddy... but not for long, as his impatience began to turn to anger.

He engaged two more, slicing one in half before the second scored a hit, then he tore it to pieces with a few blows. The next one caught his blade, and furious, her daddy punched it straight in the face, then stabbed it through the middle. "Die! Die damn youuuu!" he yelled at it with determined fury, smashing his fist through it's skull. Then he counterattacked one who tried to get him from behind, and prompted four more to come after him!

Her daddy registered this, then he grinned savagely.

He lunged straight at them-

The battle was a terrible thing, filled with endless conflict that never seemed to end, and her daddy's style was even more vicious than before. She knew exactly why that was; he wanted to see mommy so badly he'd die if he didn't! But still, it scared her... no! She can't think like that! He's doing this for mommy, and for her!

Her daddy's relentless efforts thinned their ranks, and while the rest swarmed him, he moved up with every second.

Soon they were getting close, she could almost taste it! And daddy must have too, because he reached a hand up to touch the gate above them- Gah!

No, that couldn't be! The data didn't say they had bows!

Then she looked back at her map, and recoiled in horror; the Guardian's numbers had gone up to what they'd been before, matching the number of pre-sets... and all armed with bows, ready to fire.

But that wasn't possible! It didn't fit with their spawn rate!

Every single one of them fired, literally raining arrows down upon them - her daddy didn't try to dodge all of them; there were too many! Instead he went straight up as fast he could, flinching whenever arrows struck him, slowly-but-steadily decreasing his health. One arrow even went through his shirt pocket, an inch away from her, freaking her out. He grunted from the effort... then he cried out as something heavy struck him. No, not their swords!

It got worse; four more impaled him.

He coughed up blood, or heavily did the motion of it... but he still worked to fly up.

They were so close yet so far! Her daddy's health wasn't enough to withstand everything he just had!

_"Please!"_ she begged in her mind, though of what, she didn't know. _"Let him get through, let him survive, anyway he can! Please!"_

He came so close... but in the end, the system won; his health hit zero, and his virtual body dissolved into a Remain Light.

She whimpered, somehow, feeling her mental self okay... but she no longer had her body. She slowly felt numb, watching the resurrection counter ticking down from 600 with every second, seeing that her daddy would suffer the death penalty if he wasn't revived before then.

He'd lost... they wouldn't be able to save mommy for awhile longer.

If she still had her form, she'd have been crying.

She didn't know how long she remained like that... but she slowly noticed a change in the Guardians; most had been working to return to their alcoves, but a few lingered, as if trying to interpret something. Then they all moved out of her sight, before she slowly worked to see what they were engaging... Leafa!?

She didn't even try to battle them seriously, moving past them and forcing them into misdirection - and the moment she caught sight of her daddy's Remain Light, went straight toward it, and tucked it against her body. Behind her, she felt the remaining Guardian's readying their bows-

"Get out of here!" she said, not caring if she couldn't hear her.

Leafa grunted in pain as arrows pierced her, but she worked to zig-zag, aiming straight for the still-open door that lead to the Base of the World Tree! She dodged more than a few arrows and swords, then- yes, they were out! Only vaguely aware of the doors closing behind them, she desperately hoped that Leafa had resurrection magic, or items, or whatever! She didn't want to repeat the journey over here again! She watched with worry as Leafa accessed her menu, then clicked a few things and... oh! A World Tree Dewdrop!

She wasted no time in using it on her daddy's Remain Light.

From a small flickering flame, the resurrection item took his data and organized it back into his human form, important stuff first followed by equipment and other such things. She waited a few seconds, having her eyes closed then slowly tried to move her fingers... when they twitched, she knew her body was back in her daddy's pocket.

Thank goodness.

Still, her daddy got on his knees beside Leafa, breathing faintly. "Thank you, Leafa" he said gently. "Promise me you won't do that again; I can do this myself. And besides, I don't want to cause you any more trouble."

Still in his pocket, she made a subdued sound, but did nothing.

Leafa tried to argue that it wasn't any trouble, but her daddy had already started walking - then she tried to argue that he couldn't do this alone, and he agreed, but he was gonna try anyway. Then to her surprise, but nothing else, Leafa ended up leaning against her daddy's back... begging him to stop, because his being like this scared her, and that he- he meant so much to her. Her daddy's reaction was much the same as hers... but reflecting back on previous actions, she thought that now it all made some sort of sense. And right now, she was too sad to feel jealous.

"Leafa" he breathed, slowly moving his hand over hers tightly. "Sorry... if I don't get up there, nothing will end, nothing will begin... I have to see her again, just once" he continued faintly. "I have to see Asuna."

She heard Leafa's small gasp, but she slowly became aware of her feelings... a growing feeling of shock, and impending something else.

"...what... what did you just say?" she whispered, as if someone else had asked it.

"Her name's Asuna... she's the one I've been looking for."

Leafa slowly detached from him, the shocking growing stronger and stronger... and more than that, it was being mixed with horror, fear, and sadness.

"But then... then you're... oh my god..."

Her daddy slowly looked at Leafa, just as confused as she was; why had mommy's name caused this massive shift in her emotions?

It was awhile before she spoke again: "...is that you? ...Kazuto?"

Her daddy made a sound, exactly the same time as she did. Kazuto? Hmm- wait, her daddy's confusion morphed directly to shock that rivaled Leafa's.

"Sugu?" he asked, almost breathless. "Suguha?"

Now she was even more confused; did her daddy know her in real life?

"I-I can't believe it... it's not fair! No!"

"Sugu!" he cried out, trying and failing to stop her from logging out... then he breathed out a bit.

"Daddy, what's going on?"

It was as if he half-heard, not even looking at her. "Sorry, but I just... I gotta do something" he said, distracted as he worked his own menu. "I'll see you later, don't know when I'll be back."

And before she could even open her mouth, he'd pressed the Log Out button, his physical form and hers vanishing with it.

Her mental self remained though, utterly confused, and massively worried; that hadn't been like her daddy at all, and she didn't even know what caused this situation! But, she couldn't talk to him in the real world, in any form, so she was stuck here... just in case he was long, whatever he was dealing with, she put herself into shut-down mode. At the very least, she wanted to go over the data of the Guardians again; they still didn't strike her right...

/

When her daddy returned, it had been at least twelve hours since he came back... and Leafa had immediately challenged him to that rematch, stopping his attempt to say something using her 'Suguha' name. So even when she full command of her senses, she had sadly concluded that they were too focused elsewhere - even if they heard her, it'd only distract them from the issue at hand.

Whatever that was.

The rematch itself had consisted of a few opening blows... and then in a twist she didn't see coming, both of them had thrown the match, but as a result collided with each other, their weapons landing together on a floating island below.

Her daddy said he was sorry, and she slowly returned it as well - then her daddy said that maybe, his problem was that he'd never really 'came back' to the real world after SAO, in spirit as she understood it. And he couldn't come back until mommy had woken up, because the game hadn't ended for him yet... and thus, he didn't know how he fitted in at home, with her. But she'd said that when he did, she'd be there, and they'd work it out - until then, she'd help him in here. And he'd only agreed, to put it simply.

She was even more confused than she had been before, and that was saying something. And their emotions were so conflicted, despite the ease of which they spoke, that she couldn't make sense of more than bits and pieces.

Still, when she started to fly back to the Base of the World Tree, he said he'd meet her there, having to think about his strategy against the Guardians... Leafa merely said for her not to let her 'daddy' take too long, and she was gone.

She slowly popped out of his pocket, but not flying. "Daddy?" she breathed, worried.

He slowly looked at her, his expression giving every hint that he wasn't about to go into deep thought about the Guardians. She decided to take that as her sign-

"Who is she?"

He glanced out at the sky, but there was something strange about his look, a bad strange. "In here, she's Leafa" he said faintly, slowly maneuvering himself onto a floating island, resting his wings. "Out there in the real world, she's Suguha Kirigaya... my cousin."

She breathed out, surprised; his cousin? And her daddy's name in the real world was Kazuto Kirigaya? "And... what happened?" she wondered.

His expression tightened, just the slightest bit. "...it's complicated" he admitted, very faint. "But... suffice to say... she... loves me."

"...well, shouldn't she?" she asked, trying to be comforting. "She's part of your family after all."

"That's not how I meant it, Yui."

His voice had been completely toneless.

She slowly blinked... "Gah!" she exclaimed, looking between her daddy and the very-small-at-this-distance Leafa.

"Yeah" he said, still in that 'tone'. "And that's part of the problem... I have small issues with that, and she knows it's wrong, but... still."

She slowly breathed out, trying to comprehend how the Leafa she knew could feel that way about her daddy, her cousin, but still weighed down by the sadness from earlier. "And... you solved it?" she asked, hesitant and worried, but wanting an answer - even an incomplete one could help.

He slowly looked back at her again, sighing heavily. "More like... it's on hold, for now" he breathed, still faint, but recovering from tonelessness. "I need her help to save mommy, and so we're gonna work together. But after that... it's not gonna be 'solved', not by a long shot, and we both know it."

She didn't even know how to feel at that, except a confused sad... so she flew out of his pocket, weakly pressing herself against his cheek, in a manner of hugging him. For a moment, he didn't respond, but then his hand came up and gently rubbed against her back.

She merely held him tighter.

"Yui?"

"Hmm?"

"Can you please not say anything about this to her, unless she does so herself?"

She understood why; underneath the situation, and all the interactions that were going on, his cousin's heart must still be fragile from the revelation, the possible arguments, maybe even heartbreak. Her daddy was asking her not to unknowingly shatter it, or make things worse; to make sure things were a little easier.

Whimpering a bit, she slowly nodded against his cheek.

/

Soon after that, her daddy, Leafa and Recon had discussed their next raid on the World Tree, and she'd provided info on the Guardians. Their stats weren't impressive, but their numbers were, essentially adding up to one impossible Boss. But her daddy's stats were really high, so maybe with a burst of sufficient speed, he could smash right through those numbers. And in the end, they were in this together, in a three-way handshake - well, make that four-way when she sat down on top of it, smiling.

So again, they went inside the Grand Quest.

The attempt, while valiant, still had much the same downward spiral effect as last time - they were just too many of them, even with healing! And adding onto that, their spawn rate still said eight no matter what happened, which did not add up in any way!

In an attempt to penetrate the defensive wall of Guardians, Recon had used a Self-Destruct spell, destroying many of them... and her daddy sped straight at the hole. But the Guardians were suddenly faster, forming a shield that forced him back, and allowed them to spear him multiple times!

She'd wanted to scream in frustration; they were practically cheating! She stared at the drastically wrong eight on their spawn rate; must be glitched or something!

Wait...

She gasped; that wasn't a number eight! It was an _infinity_ symbol, just turned on it's head for some reason! No wonder they defied the rules of the game! Who designed this!?

But even with that ridiculous spawn rate, she noticed that their numbers never went over 10,000 at any time; they just regenerated fast enough to compensate for any losses, with increasing spawn rate the closer the target got!

Then massive activity on her Area Map forced her attention away, and she gasped again.

"What are the Sylphs doing here?" her daddy wondered.

"No way, they made it!" Leafa exclaimed, relieved.

They weren't the only ones-

"Dragons! It's the Cat Sith! And they brought the whole arm- uh!"

She was so happy that they were here! Even with 10,000 Guardians, and an infinite spawn rate, if they did this right, they could still break through the wall!

"Hello there; I hope we're not late."

"Yeah, sorry! It took us a little while to get ready but we're here now!"

"Sakuya! Alicia!"

The two leaders merely moved to the front of the battle line, facing the hordes of Guardians. "Okay Dragoons, get ready to toast these suckers! - Sylph warriors, prepare to engage the enemy!"

The Guardian's moved in-

"Fire Breath, attaaack!"

"Fenrir Storm, fire at will!"

With matching streams of fire and blue magic energy, the Cat Sith and Sylphs blasted the Guardian's lines with incredible firepower, wrecking havoc - she could already see the Guardians' targeting patterns beginning to shift. Good. And boy did all the players take advantage of this, slashing, blasting and incinerating left and right, drawing attention until the focus on her daddy and Leafa was becoming minimal.

"Sugu! Watch my back!"

"You got it!"

Here they go...

Slicing and thrashing, the two of them raced straight up, toward the mass of Guardians.

"Follow their lead!"

The havoc the two races caused helped immensely, but she knew the rest test was yet to come; the Guardians' targeting patterns were beginning to shift again.

Burning with furious determination, her daddy roared as he approached the top, where a gap in the Guardians' ranks had appeared - and as expected, they formed a wall-shield to stop him in his tracks.

"Kazuto!"

With ease, her daddy caught Leafa's blade, then he thrust both weapons before him. At the same time, all his determination and rage blended together, forming an unstoppable desire to get past them at any cost. He was facing the impossible with sheer force of will... and that wasn't all; she knew that practically every aspect of ALO had been copied from SAO, and she'd seen multiple instances where force of will had defied the system's rules and restrictions. So no, it wasn't just her daddy vs. the system. It was _their family_ vs. the system! And that included Leafa's desire from below them!

In his pocket, her hands clenched together, trembling from the effort needed to project her willpower alongside her daddy's! But _nothing_ would stop them from getting to mommy!

Their combined willpower materialized, taking the form of pure energy, joining together and merging with the elements in both blades. This energy did not have an element, or a name, but it did take the form of a virtual tempest spreading outward from the tips of the blades.

The Guardians' did everything in their power to stop them, impaling themselves against their tempest with equal force, their numbers respawning infinitely. Their speed began to slow a little as they collided against even more of them; they had reached the wall.

But they would not be denied!

_"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!"_

With an impact that could be felt across the game, they broke through the wall of Guardians, her daddy's sword impaling itself in the gate above! She didn't even wait for her daddy to fully register this, looking out from the safety of his pocket, seeing the wall of Guardian's closing up above (below) them, and she smirked.

Their programming was so poor in this area; as long as threats remained down there, nothing up here could be noticed.

"Damn it..."

She quickly looked back to her daddy, who clung to the still-closed gate, clearly frustrated. "Now what do I do?" he wondered, before trying to jam his sword in the cracks, to no avail. "Hey, Yui!"

"Yes, daddy!" she breathed quickly, flying out and landing on the gate herself, before her eyebrows slowly furrowed. "Daddy... something strange is going on here" she breathed, worried. "This door isn't locked by a quest flag; it's locked by the system administrator!"

"And that means?"

She gasped, turning back to him. "Restricted access!" she cried out, at the same time it denied her efforts to investigate further. "This door was _never_ intended to be opened by a player!"

Her daddy's shock matched her own; there was no Grand Quest, maybe even no floating city or Alf fairy race! And in that shock, the Guardians began moving in on them again, the Slyphs and Cat Sith having cleared out!

The shock lasted a moment, then something struck her daddy. "No, wait" he said quickly, digging inside his outfit. "That's it! Hey Yui, see if this will work!"

She breathed out; the System Admin Access Code! Determined, she quickly flew up, placing her hands upon it - within seconds, she drew all data from the code into herself, using processes that the system would not recognize, either as a threat or in general. Even though ALO was copied from the SAO frame, and thus had access to all it's code, she was separate from the system - she had her own processes that it would have no knowledge about, hidden inside her game object form. That's what you get when you mess with a sentient AI like her! **  
**

"I'm transferring the code" she said intently, placing her hands upon the gate... and a second later, it began to open with a great rumble, forcing both of them to fly again.

She gasped, then quickly moved. "We're gonna teleport!" she cried out. "Daddy, give me your hand!"

He did so, just in time for her to touch his hand... then the code began to teleport them.

* * *

**Yeah, when an AI is dead set on getting past ludicrous design choices, you know you're screwed.**

**And I had a feeling that, one way or the other, Yui would be quietly hoping beyond all reason that they'd succeed - this way, in addition to Leafa/Suguha's already-present desire for her brother to succeed, it simply took form and helped achieve the impossible :P**


	10. Family

**Disclaimer:** Don't own SAO or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T

**A little something I wondered about, to see what it might have been like for Yui, that drove her to meet Kirito + Asuna**

* * *

_ALO_

_No mapping data available_

When the teleport process was complete, she quickly opened her eyes, looking around - the disappearing glow made it difficult, but she saw they were in some type of corridor. Unfortunately, aside from the fact that this place was inexplicably a no-flying zone (like in dungeons, but worse, and forced her to revert to her normal form), that was all she could tell, then she quickly turned around in worry. "Daddy?" she breathed to his figure. "Daddy?"

He jolted, slowly relieving her. "Yui" he breathed, looking around. "Where are we?"

"I don't know; there's no mapping data available" she said, and that worried her.

"Then, do you know where Asuna is?"

"Yes" she breathed, concentrating, seeing her player data and also searching through the other capabilities of the data she'd taken in. "She's close, very close in fact..."

Then she gasped; the data included small-scale object deletion abilities! And more than that, she had her own version of mapping data, being able to anticipate the most likely routes to any destination she chose! She quickly stood up; "This way!"

She ran down the corridor as fast as she could, nearly tripping once but still going, feeling her daddy following closely behind. Then when the mapping data changed, she quickly wheeled on the spot, touching her hands to the wall... it gave way before her, making her gasp in surprise at how sudden the process was, but she still regained her balance. It led down another small corridor, which was blocked by a door.

Not for long!

When she got there, she forced herself against it, as if she had super strength. And somewhat she did, just with data instead of muscles; her daddy only helped out by straining the metal, this forcing the deletion process to go through quicker.

Thankfully, instead of another corridor, this one opened onto an outside part of the World Tree - she slowly stepped down onto the branch, breathing out over the view, knowing that no else had ever been able to see what was up here.

Her daddy must have had similar thoughts: "Is this it? Is this the top of the World Tree?" he breathed, before gasping and looking up quickly. "...there's supposed to be a floating city up here. There was never any Grand Quest; the whole damn thing was a lie! He's gonna pay for this..."

She didn't know exactly who 'he' was, but she got the gist that it was the one who'd trapped mommy, and she had her own suspicions - but she felt his anger being to boil over. Making a small sound, she gently tugged on his sleeve with both hands.

Her soft touch comforted him a little. "Yeah, I know" he breathed faintly, but soft. "We gotta get Asuna out of here first, right."

She smiled with a nod, and he returned it, before his watchful eyes scanned the area - she knew where mommy's player dot was, but it was still out of her reach; her mapping data anticipation only went so far. However, her daddy was better and faster at spotting things visually- then he gasped, his emotions turned on their head, then he pulled her along quickly! She was surprised, and nearly tripped, but she kept up with him as he ran fast, along the steadily-going-up branch.

As they ran, she looked where he did, and began to see something glinting in the light; a cage reminiscent of a bird's, with a single figure instead. Soon she was gasping as they ran, but out of excitement.

Daddy only went faster, and she kept up.

/

The run up the branch was a long one, and normally they'd have been exhausted, but somehow they weren't as they got up with determination.

Even as they ran, her mind unconsciously gathered data on the cage itself; for the main part, it just looked like your average cage, but it wasn't. The door would only open from the inside + outside with a nine-digit code, and any attempts to view the code being inputted were heavily blurred from her mommy's sight at all times - plus, her mommy had all of her abilities stripped away (including flight and the ability to access her menu), and her stats were at purely one each. The bars themselves were basically Immortal Objects that she couldn't affect, and while they were just wide enough that she could have slipped out with effort, there was a barrier around the cage at all times a foot away - that way she couldn't just get out, because it would not allow players through, except through the door area. And even if she had gotten out, if her character died for any reason, she would respawn back in the cage.

And due to the data, she had reason to believe that every time she'd tried to escape, the restrictions to keep her in had gotten progressively worse.

But all that was in the back of her mind right now-

"MOMMY!"

She snapped up, starring at the sight in front of her.

She held her hands in front of her, overflowing with happiness. "Mommy!" she breathed; it was really her!

The sight of her and daddy finally registered, and her hands came up to her mouth, trembling and tears falling- but they were happy ones! The trembling and tears only got 'worse' as she increasingly realized it was them!

"Mommy!" she breathed again, deleting the door in front of her and quickly running in. In the middle of running, she jumped up, her own tears falling-

"Yui!"

-in less than a second, she collided against her. "Mommy!" she cried out, holding her close and trembling herself, loving the instinctive hug her mommy gave her!

"Yui" she whispered, with pure relief and teary happiness, she sharing that same look before they both hugged each other even tighter. She wouldn't have minded if this lasted forever!

"Mommy" she breathed, the tears running thick, burying herself against her mommy's chest. "Mommy!"

Still trembling, still happy, she felt daddy's happiness at their moment - and that happiness and relief stayed as he slowly approached. Mommy looked up after a moment, smiling at her daddy and he back - then she wiped her tears, only radiating happiness and relief. "Kirito" she breathed, reflecting this.

"Asuna."

She looked up when they stepped closer, and saw how they looked at each other, her mommy's hand on her daddy's cheek. She closed her eyes, just loving the fact that they were together again.

"Hey, sorry I took so long."

"Mmh-mm, no, it's okay, really; I always knew you'd save me."

She held them both closer, and it was the best thing ever for her, and them. It felt like awhile before they pulled apart, just slightly-

"Well, ready to go home?" he asked, as soft as could be.

Mommy's emotions reached a fever peak again, almost on the verge of crying happily again, only able to nod and answer 'Mmm-hm!'

"Yui? Can you log Asuna out from here?"

While still happy, she reluctantly shook her head. "No, her status is locked by complicated codes that I don't have access to" she said sadly. "We'll need to find a system console to bypass them."

Her mommy jolted. "I found a console in the labratory!" she said intently. "I can-"

Her daddy instantly tensed, turning as if something was there... then this hideously guttural sound came from all around them- wait, no, from _below_ them!

"What's that!?"

They all cried out; it was if gravity had just doubled on them, and it was getting worse!

"Yui, what's happening!?" her daddy struggled to move, even as the floor below them faded away, to be replaced by some sort of darkness, except for a small area.

She cried out; her system was under attack, showcased by the purple electricity around her form!

She held on tightly to her mommy, who's grip was even harder. "Daddy! Mommy!" she cried out, finding it more and more difficult to keep herself together data-wise! "Be careful! Something- something bad's coming!"

The system itself came in to crush her-

In desperation, not wanting to her core data to be corrupted with it, she detached herself from ALO's systems; her physical form disappeared from her mommy's arms.

...

...

...

When she was certain that she was still functioning, she was relieved, knowing she was safe on her daddy's Nervegear rig. But, if she tried to go back to ALO and reform her body, she would be deleted again and again. And here, she no longer had any access to... well, anything. She couldn't move, talk, or much else at all.

This made her angry.

She would not let herself wait around while her mommy and daddy were in danger!

Taking a page out of her daddy's book again, she focused her willpower and forced it through her daddy's Nervegear. Previously, she had just been data on a Nervegear that had been turned off, and so she barely had any presence at all - but her daddy's Nervegear was still functioning at this very moment, beeping and monitoring her daddy's life systems, as well as his character's status deeper into that code. That last part was supposed to be out of her reach, but she would not stop until she forced herself to the limit!

The system instinctively resisted; this was not something that should be happening to it. But it didn't know what to do except for already-established safeguards, because this wasn't something it'd been expected to deal with.

But she would not be denied.

It took quite awhile, but eventually she gained access to the Nervegear's inner code - with it, she pushed herself in, as deep as she could go. What she saw- ah!

Her daddy was pinned to the ground via his own weapon, while in his mind, he saw her mommy suspended by chains, facing another man. She didn't have the whole picture, because all she saw were the physical 3-dimensional models, coded a dark-green with no features or textures, just their basest forms. And not only that, but she couldn't see every movement that they made, because the data was confused on her intrusion. But she knew who the opponent was by her daddy's enemy bar: Oberon, the Fairy King. The GM.

Mommy! Daddy!

She gasped; he was getting up!

_"Your attacks are weak..."_

Huh? How was she possibly hearing that?

_"-the blades in SAO hit way harder, and way more than this!"_

With sheer force of will, her daddy stood up, despite the sword in his back (that promptly fell out) and the gravity magic working against him. On her screen, she saw all this via his 3-dimensional model, if not how his mouth moved or all of the motions.

She didn't hear anything more, but she did see Oberon move to strike her daddy - who simply caught his wrist.

When nothing else happened, she was slowly confused, worried as she looked at their health gauges again.

Oberon, the Fairy King [GM] lost it's GM icon entirely, making her gasp, then to her utter shock, it appeared on her daddy's health status! How he had done that!? Then Oberon's status was reset to level one, and through his loss of GM status, the gravity magic lost all ability to be used by his will. Then it was clear they were talking, where Oberon tried (and failed) to summon something via system command... which he no longer had any access to. However, her daddy must have stolen the system command, because he soon summoned something as well.

She recognized it by shape alone; Excaliber, the strongest weapon in ALO.

Daddy simply gave it to Oberon, while he flipped his own weapon back into his hand, threatening the other man with it.

She still didn't know how this was possible, but she prayed and hoped her daddy would free mommy. Still, she wondered about what her daddy was doing; even with the legendary weapon Excaliber, being at level one meant that higher-skilled players would take no damage if their defense or armor was high enough. She also knew that even if her daddy let him hit him with Excaliber, despite the fact his equipment was still low-level, the damage would be minimal. So why was he letting this man fight a hopeless battle at all?

Slowly, only one reasonable answer came to her mind... Oberon had been the one in control, had kidnapped her mommy, and thought he was invincible. Now her daddy had turned the tables on him, after seeing what he did to mommy, which she still had little knowledge about.

Humiliation.

She trembled mentally; her daddy must be _beyond_ mad if he was resorting to that!

On her screen, Oberon attacked her daddy - but he easily blocked every attempt to hit him, barely moving otherwise, even from that very spot. And from the general motions, she could see that this was Oberon's first time truly wielding a sword in battle... and even then his movements were _terrible_. Then he moved to stab her daddy in the head, who promptly dodged and sliced his blade across Oberon's cheek.

Normally, this should have given her a series of blue lines around the wound area, to show the representation of damage, but little actual pain. Instead, the series of lines were a fierce blood red, confusing her... then she gasped.

Her daddy had set the Pain Absorber to zero - oh my god, she had been right when her daddy was way beyond mad! Terribly right! Then she forced herself to shake her mental self; though what her daddy was about to do was cruel, he was ultimately doing it to save her mommy, and to prevent this man from taking her again, whether in ALO or the real world! She knew him well enough to see that - this would be terrible, but it was necessary, and it would still not kill the man in real life. Slowly, she held herself together, waiting for it all to be over.

Despite her status though, she still got repeating split-second-apart brief flashes into the battle, looking like strobe lights but still able to tell what was going on.

Oberon tried to block the next attack, but it connected - slicing his right forearm off at the halfway mark, dropping Excaliber.

She felt no joy at this; it did not bring her happiness to see others suffer, even if they had kidnapped her mommy. And she knew her daddy was not enjoying this either, because of the way he had swung his sword - the only thing he felt was cold fury. Maybe she couldn't sense his emotions like this, but she had monitored his heart rate. Normally when he battled a foe, he was at the top of his game, feeling the 'roar' of battle... but now, his heart rate was calm and measured. It scared her, but she stayed strong; it was all for mommy's sake, she knew it deep down.

Oberon recoiled at the intense web of red lines radiating up his arm, but daddy merely stepped forward slowly... then swiped the sword in an arc, point-blank.

If the arm had been a web of red lines, it was nothing compared to that - Oberon's lower half evaporated, slamming him to the ground. Her daddy stepped forward again, reaching down and picking him up by the hair itself, merely starring down at him.

Then he threw what was left of him up into the air-

-she eased out of the code just enough, denying her sense of sight; whatever he did, she already knew it would be a virtual killing blow.

She waited ten full seconds before she dared going back in, and sure enough, all she saw was her daddy swinging his sword a bit... then right through the chains holding up her mommy, falling to his knees together with her, the sword itself having been discarded.

She just felt relieved, in more ways than one, seeing his vitals spike again as he trembled against her mommy.

Then at that moment, the system - which she'd been forcing herself against for the last few minutes - finally overpowered her and pushed her out of the data that she wasn't supposed to be able to access. She didn't care anymore; her daddy had defeated the man who had threatened them all, so now she didn't need to force her way in. Instead, she got her data ready to reform her back as herself in ALO, now that it was safe.

The process took awhile, and during the process, she noted that her daddy had suddenly acquired a vast amount of data contained in a very small physical item, which she was curious about, but that could wait.

At the very last few seconds of it, she heard: "Yui! Are you okay! Where are you!?"

She formed out of nowhere, "Daddy!" she cried out out in relief, landing against him in a hug and he instinctively catching her.

He was relieved. "Thank god, you're safe" he breathed, smiling.

"Uh-huh" she breathed softly, hands around his neck. "I hid myself inside the local memory of your Nervegear rig. Where's mommy?"

"Don't worry" he assured gently. "She's safe. She's back home now."

"Mommy's back!?" she breathed, excited before she buried herself against her daddy's chest. "_Thank goodness!_ I'm so happy, really!"

He gently stroked her hair, which she liked as well. "I promise we'll be back to visit soon" he assured, before it turned a little worried. "Although, I don't know how much longer this world's gonna be around..."

Mmm, yeah; she couldn't imagine the reaction that two VRMMORPG's that had been twisted away from their original purposes would garner in the real world. But still-

"It doesn't matter, because my whole program's inside your Nervegear now" she told him brightly, smiling. "So we'll always be together!"

He nodded, smiling even more. "Alright" he breathed. "I better head out... I'm gonna go see mommy."

The sadness came, but she was still so happy; things were finally okay again! "Okay daddy" she breathed lovingly, trying not to show her sadness. "I love you!" she said quickly, holding onto her daddy for as long as she could. He held her close as well with his right hand, slowly taking out his menu with his left hand... but he paused, seemingly to get that 'one last look' at this world, just in case. She didn't mind, knowing it gave her more seconds to physically be with him.

He gently held them apart, just a little - then he kissed her cheek.

That loving fatherly show of affection was the last thing she felt before their physical forms disappeared, and she loved it, as she did her family.

/

_Kirito's Nervegear_

_Later_

Now that her daddy's Nervegear had been turned off, her mental self was now extremely restricted, aside from processing the data that she would get from ALO. But still, she hoped for her mommy and daddy to find each other, and to be happy forever. That would be all she'd want.

Eventually, she became aware of a sort of sense... it was very limited, and almost looked like a mental blueprint rather than anything visual, auditory, or anything like that. In it, she saw a room connected to a hallway, with lots of other rooms. In one of them, she saw- mommy! And near it, so very close, was her daddy - she found it interesting that her daddy's name was Kazato (even though she'd heard the name before), where in-game it was Kirito, but her mommy's name was the exact same in real life as well as in-game.

Her daddy's dot didn't move, despite not being in sight of mommy, by obstacles alone.

"Hurry up, she's waiting for you!" she pushed gently, hoping he somehow heard it.

Maybe he did, or maybe he didn't, but at that moment, he did step forward into the room with mommy. And even though she couldn't sense their emotions like this, she could imagine them so readily, it was like she was there. And after a few moments, her daddy was quick to give her mommy a hug, one that lasted a good while - even though they were dots, they had the slightest space between them, so she could tell.

The sort-of sense begin to disappear on her...

But there was a moment where her daddy and mommy were so close, they might as well have been one dot.

She merely smiled, even as the sense disappeared on her - a tight hug, or that affection known as a kiss, whatever; they were so happy to finally meet each other in real life, officially. She just knew it!

/

_ALO_

_Undine Capital_

When her daddy came back to ALO some days later, at the game's night cycle, she was overjoyed and gave him a great big hug (which he'd chuckled at but returned). But she'd also been worried; how was mommy?

"Well, she's still going through the process of creating her ALO character, a proper one" he'd said to her - she had been surprised, but still overjoyed; her mommy was coming to the game, yes! Then she asked if that was really okay, because of ALO's status; and he'd said "There have been issues, but also a lot of other things; the game's safe." Cool! And as it turned out, using his temporary access of GM for awhile, he'd set some great things in motion (and turned the Pain Absorber back to level ten, thankfully), but he was determined to go through the game again, fairly this time.

That certainly explained him resetting his skills.

"What is this great thing you're bringing to ALO, daddy?" she asked a little later, from where they stood/floated in the middle of the Undine capital's plaza, where her mommy would start out from (he'd discussed the races themselves with her thoroughly before the actual log in process, and thus knew her starting race before she'd even started).

He smiled. "Well, let's just saaaaaaaay..." he drew out playfully, intentionally not telling her at first, to her pout and his chuckle.

"Let's just say, Aincrad itself."

She gasped; the entire floating castle from SAO!?

"It's set to come down in a controlled manner, about thirty minutes from now, and will be visible throughout all of ALO" he'd said gently, but also mildly. "Because the previous Grand Quest was a big fat waste of time, many players were pissed, to put it mildly. So I put a new one in, thanks to the castle's data being perfectly copy+pasted."

Wow, not only was that so like her daddy, but that sounded like so much fun! To experience the former castle of SAO and all it's floors again, but without fear of anyone dying anymore! This was so great!

Then he brought out his wings. "I gotta go meet Leafa now" he said gently, touching a finger to her cheek, but thankfully not as a poke. "Be here when mommy logs in, and meet up with everyone else soon."

"You got it! Good luck, daddy!" she said brightly, watching as he flew off, giggling a bit. And she continued to watch until a burst of noise quickly drew her attention, and she breathed out in curiosity.

Her eyes were closed, wearing an outfit that was extremely similar to her SAO one, except her hair was now a light blue... but other than that, it was her mommy in every detail! Her eyebrows furrowed a bit, adjusting to the new virtual body a bit, then her eyes opened again - they were also a light blue now, but exactly the same otherwise as she looked over herself!

"Mommy!"

A little surprised, she was nonetheless happy to see her, but also curious about this side of her; well, it was the first time she'd seen her as a pixie! "You like it, mommy?" she asked, twirling in front of her. "I'm a Navigation Pixie AI now!"

"I certainly do!" she said, excited. "I don't think you've ever looked cuter than you do now!"

She giggled, flying to her mommy's shoulder, where her mommy gently touched her cheek with her fingers, which she leaned against. "And don't worry mommy, I can still appear as I usually do" she assured. "The only problem is that I can't fly in that form, so I'll only appear as it while around you and daddy!"

She nodded, smiling. "And I wouldn't have it any other way" she said, before slowly looking behind her, at the wings that appeared. "Woah... cool!"

"To fly, there are two ways" she said cheerfully. "By controller in your hand, or by physically working your back as if you had virtual bones and muscles connected to your wings. Daddy massively prefers the latter one!"

"Oh he does, does he?" she said, in a very playful tone that made her think she had 'plans' regarding that. She merely grinned, giggling at the prospect of her daddy grumbling about a playful joke.

Mommy's flying experience went much like her daddy's: a little awkward at first, but rapidly got smoother and smoother... the only difference was her mommy didn't go through a 'How do I make it stop?' process, hehe, and also because she taught her mommy how to land right away. Wasn't gonna make that mistake twice! But unlike her daddy, mommy no longer had to worry about her wings giving out; daddy said the new managers of this game had removed the flight time limit, which had well-received by every single player! When her mommy got it down pat, she cheered for her, flying up nearby even as her mommy accessed her menu for the first time in ALO (with the same instinctive right motion before she learned it was left now).

"Wow, I've got all my old skills and stats from SAO with me" she said, surprised.

"Uh huh" she breathed gently. "The same thing happened to daddy, merging his older character with the newer one, least before he reset all his skills and stats like he said to you."

"Hmm" she breathed, smiling a bit, but then she paused. "Wait, this is my currency, right?" she asked (and she confirmed), looking at her. "Will it go away if I reset all my skills and stats as well?"

She quickly checked, hmming, then: "No, it'll stay anyway, mommy" she said cheerfully.

Then her mommy got a little grin. "Good, because I'll need it, knowing Kirito's wasted all his money by now" she said playfully, proudly.

She tilted her head. "What do you need it for mommy?" she asked curiously.

Her mommy smiled, looking at her. "Because one day, there will come another Twenty-One Floor Boss fight in the New Aincrad" she said gently, and firmly. "And when that day comes, I'm gonna clear the boss with everyone else, and then head straight to Floor Twenty-Two."

She breathed out.

"No one else is gonna claim that little cabin; we were there first."

Her eyes filled with happy tears, and with those emotions, she hugged her mommy's cheek tightly. Mommy gently rubbing her back with her hand only made it better; they were gonna be a real family again, with the same house and everything! And when she pulled away, mommy wiped away the tears that remained, so gentle that it made her even more happy.

Still, when they checked the time, it showed they had fifteen minutes until the New Aincrad would show up.

"Come on, we better meet up with everyone; they won't want to miss this" she said gently. "Yui, lead the way for me."

"You got it, mommy!" she said brightly, hanging on tightly as she flew off at a fast rate. Woohoo! Go go go go!

* * *

**Done :) Well, this covers the SAO and ALO arcs anyway lol - s****till, may we enjoy the still-ongoing GGO arc of the anime!**

**And much like the added thoughts on the cousin situation, I did a similar thing about the cage itself, based upon a number of things from the anime. No-flying zone? Barrier? Other such things? If they weren't there, Asuna would have likely broken out long ago - that, or she already got loose a number of times before we were aware of this, and got the current restrictions to prevent that in the future (she was in there for some time before Kirito got in after all). Plus Sugou isn't the type to not take advantage of his GM status...**

**Anyway, glad you all enjoyed this :)**


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